Parade tragedy an act of unconscionable violence, yet we carry on

We Americans seem to live, more and more, in the narrow spaces between acts of unconscionable violence. When one erupts, as it did late Sunday at a Christmas parade in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, we stop living our lives. We grimace, watch the inevitable video — horrifying, soul-quaking — read about the number of dead and injured — in Waukesha, six dead, more than 60 injured, among them children, grandmothers, a Catholic priest — and shake our heads at the unreal nature of this reality.

A chilly November night. Folding chairs and hot cocoa along Main Street. School kids in a marching band. Eager eyes out for Santa Claus. A group called the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies.

And then a speeding maroon SUV, and a man who kept driving, smashing and crushing person after person after person. Confusion, screams. Then sirens. A mass casualty event.

We grimace. We always do. Whether it’s a house of worship or a movie theater or a shopping mall. Or a school. A protest. Or now a Christmas parade.

Whether the weapon is a gun or a vehicle, it’s a thump of trauma. Our lives stop and we hurt for those hurting and we wonder if there’s a way to pick up the pieces of shattered innocence and glue them together again with decency and compassion.

And we await the facts.

The driver of the vehicle was identified as Darrell Brooks, 39. The Associated Press reported this: “Online court records showed a person named Darrell Brooks, with a birthdate making him 39, has two open criminal cases in Milwaukee County. In one case, filed Nov. 5, he is charged with resisting or obstructing an officer, reckless homicide, disorderly conduct, bail jumping and battery. Records show $1,000 bond was posted on Friday.”

Waukesha police Chief Dan Thompson said Monday the suspect had fled the scene of a domestic disturbance before speeding on to the parade route and there is “no evidence that this is a terrorist incident.”

Brooks is charged with five counts of firstdegree intentional homicide, and police officials said additional charges will come.

Justice can’t come soon enough. Nor can clarity. Why flee through a space already blocked by police?

We’ll learn more in the days ahead about what led Brooks to that place, but whatever we learn won’t be an excuse.

He created another hideous American moment, the kind that bookends our often brief stretches of normal living.

But we are a resilient lot.

Waukesha’s police chief, clearly shaken, said this from city hall on Monday: “Minutes after this incident occurred, I responded to the scene and what I saw out of chaos and tragedy was heroes.

“First responders and the community coming together and working together on triaging victims, the fire department getting these victims to the hospital. Officers picked up victims and put them in their squad cars and rushed them to the hospital. Off-duty law enforcement, fire and EMS personnel attending this event immediately got involved and took part in saving lives.”

The people of Waukesha and the greater Milwaukee area gathered Monday evening for a vigil, a show of support for the parade victims. They bore witness to horror Sunday night, but they won’t cower.

We don’t let fear stop us. We still go to churches and synagogues, to the mall, to school, to movie theaters.

Other small towns and suburbs across America will still hold holiday parades, with marching bands and hot cocoa and wide-eyed kids, just as Waukesha undoubtedly will again.

There are ways to contain evil, through laws and the justice system, through education and mental health. We need to always be examining the bulwarks meant to keep us safe, particularly when they fail.

But the primary things we can control, as Americans just trying to live uninterrupted by tragedy, are our fear, our judgment and our faith in humanity.

We win by not letting evil acts force us to live in fear. We win by collectively judging those who commit acts of evil as pariahs. As monsters.

And we win by showing that our faith in humanity withstands earth-rattling spasms of violence. That the best of the many is not defined by the worst of the few.

That’s how Waukesha and its grieving residents will pull themselves back up. That’s how we fight, hard, against a current of inexplicable tragedies, to stretch out those narrow spaces in which we live.