It’s the next morning and the dead/injured toll has risen (9 dead, 60 injured, 20 missing). I’m feeling a similar kind of shock I felt after 9/11 (though not nearly as extreme), where I can’t tear myself away from the coverage. I know there’s not much new to report, but I keep wanting to check in, to search for more photos, more video, more snippets of something.

I’m also feeling an incredible voyeuristic/rubbernecking thing where I want to go down there and see it for myself. I think a lot of people feel the same way. I keep trying to think of something productive I could do–donate blood, donate money, pray. None of it seems solid or real enough to matter (though I know it does).

• I want to find out if there’s one of those impromptu memorials where people put up photos and flowers and light candles.
• I want to know if I can go down near the scene without causing more problems.
• It’s ridiculously early for this, but I think there should be some kind of permanent memorial, a statue or a sculpture or something, there on the shore of the Mississippi.
• I want to go to a memorial/benefit concert or just do something.
• I want to find a way to funnel this voyeuristic feeling and impulse to go down to the scene into something productive. You just know loads of folks like me are thinking the same thing and the Stone Arch Bridge is going to be packed, I’d bet even into the weekend. I wish there was a way all those people could do contribute to something productive and uplifting.