Welcome to Las Vegas! Such a powerful salutation! If someone said “welcome to Denver..”, or “welcome to San Francisco”…it just isn’t the same. When I arrived to Las Vegas as resident in November of 2007 from Alaska, I had no idea what to expect. Not being a gambler or one to chase the 4am Happy Hour, my only adult experience was to attend a photographer’s tradeshow in 2001.
Little did I realize that in hindsight that exact month and year was the beginning of a fiscal depression that Las Vegas and most of the country had never experienced before. I was no longer a home owner and the bank account got pretty thin, but, I endured and struggled through the next 3-5 years as did most of the other 650,000 residual residents. We survived. #vegasstrong
Despite the physical size of the Las Vegas valley, and a reasonably sized population, it has always felt like a small town to me. Sure, you meet some scammers and fast-talkers but mostly I have met really down-to-earth people that have embraced our lifestyle that includes great weather, a very affordable cost-of-living and probably more community amenities than anyone could ask for. I mean, we do have an IKEA!
I awoke Monday morning (October 2nd) around 6:30am and turned on my phone as I always do. Multiple emails and text from friends and family requesting I “check-in”. WTF? I jumped on Google news and saw the devastating news. After appropriately responding to social media and replying to my friends and family, I had to figure how what in the hell happened?? The shock and awe I felt was every similar to the morning I woke up at my father’s home 3 days prior to his marriage to his third wife. Watching the news over coffee and all of a sudden seeing one tower burning and then a plane crashing into the second tower. I mean, you just can’t forget those seconds of life-changing moments. This felt the same on a smaller scale but still the overwhelming emotional upheaval of wondering how this maniac could execute so many people.
The reason for this blog post is not to ponder the mystery of THAT GUY, but to recognize all the people that lost their lives. I would hope any community like Las Vegas and Boston responds the way we did during something this so horrific, but, I did feel exceptionally proud of our community response and how we connected to so many people that were directly or indirectly affected by the lost of those #vegas58. After attending a memorial service for Las Vegas Metro Police Officer Charleston Hartfield with 1000’s of other community members, it was time to visit the pop-up Healing Garden and the instantaneous Memorial at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign area.
Heading south on Las Vegas Blvd from Russell Blvd, traffic was starting to back up in all three lanes a half-mile from the sign and you could see the 1000’s of people coming to pay their respects. I have been by this sign a million times and you could tell that this was a completely different vibe.
I would guess that the majority of the people did not know anyone directly that was killed, but, as you slowly walked the line of crosses with accumulated sentiments, I wondered what I could do as a photographer and just another guy? It was important to me to read every victim’s name and as possible I took a photo of their individual memorial. I realize thousands and thousands of people will take a similar photo as mine, but, for my own well-being I wanted to post a gallery of memorials that really impacted my life.
Despite the ambient noise of traffic, planes and 1000’s of people milling around, there was a respectful silence. As you would well up with emotions, and as you heard other people sniffling and even crying, it was like we all needed our own private ceremonies 58 times. I have never experienced anything like it. These fifty-eight people were very, very important to their families, friend and co-workers and they brought much light into our world. I have faith that even though their individual lightness was terminated, you sensed that their death would ignite smaller lights into bigger lights and the darkness these great people suffered would always be a beam of faith, hope and love for a better world around us.
I can’t fault an umbrella salesman for showing up in a rain storm but, I was a little disgusted with how churches take an instance like this to zealously market their services. In fact, one woman at the pop-up healing garden was saying loud enough to recruit similar ignorance; “see, this is what a God-less world looks like…” Being this is Sunday, I am going to guess this over-privileged white woman that probably lives in Summerlin went to church and her preacher was delivering the Gospel. I preach tolerance so I had to be tolerant but I wanted to ask her if the days of Abraham from the Old Testament were Godless? And, every child born today; is that not a miracle? What about a community that came together to support this great loss? I suspect this is the type of person the perpetuate fake news on social media without any sense of personal responsibility. I will pray for her but fart in her direction. LOL As Mahatma Gandhi quotes, “an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind..”
My prayers and condolences go out to each victim, their families, friends and co-workers. Your death has impacted my life and I hope to be a better person than I was and bring extra light to the world that we lost in your death.
COMMUNITY MEMORIAL ROCK GARDEN
Most great ideas are generated from passionate individuals. Jay Pleggenkuhle and Daniel Perez of Stonerose Landscapes had this idea to take a vacant piece of dirt in downtown Las Vegas owned by the City of Las Vegas and turn it into a pop-up healing garden. With over 300 volunteers heeding the call to volunteer duty, the Wall of Remembrance and the “park” became a place for people to pay their respects within just a few days. It is very moving. I would encourage you to visit it soon HERE.
LAS VEGAS SIGN MEMORIAL CROSSES
How does this happen? For all of the reputations that Las Vegas has for drinking, gambling and being “Sin-city”, how does a low-profile man from Illinois show up in Las Vegas 5 days after the massacre and create a pop-up memorial with 58 hand-crafted white crosses with each victim’s name? Greg Zanis is probably a house-hold name to many people but unfortunately those people are people that have lost loved ones to murder and violence.
Greg provided crosses for the Columbine High School victims, the Aurora, Colorado theater victims, Sandy Hook Elementary, the Orlando murders and many more. Greg’s responses are not a bureaucratic response with the lowest bidder getting the job. Greg knows he has a mission and he has people that realize he needs help and financial resources to complete his mission. He does not wait around for the money to arrive, he gets into action and then gets into his truck. Thank you Greg Zanis for what you have done for our Las Vegas community. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME AND LOOK AT EACH IMAGE OF AN ACTUAL MEMORIAL. IT IS THE LEAST WE CAN DO AS HUMANS TO PAY OUR RESPECTS.
