Our good friend RoadDog regularly writes about the fun side of old road travel, but he’s also been following the story of tragic shootings at Northern Illinois University, which lies along the Lincoln Highway on the west side of DeKalb. He and his wife Liz graduated from there in 1973 and like so many, find it hard to reconcile a place you love with someone’s senseless act. They took time yesterday to revisit the campus and favorite places in town. Here are some excerpts from their experiences:
Flags from Sycamore to Dekalb were at half mast and many of the signs at local establishments had words of comfort regarding the tragedy. Same with flags and signs along Lincoln Highway, Il. Route 38.
We saw at least six news vans parked along the spaces closest to Cole Hall. This is now five days after the event.
We went outside again to the two tents set up to cover the boards on which people were writing their feelings. There are now four. It was nice that someone had supplied Sharpies of different colors to express the grief. Most just said something about prayers. However, some were quite poignant. A lot said, “We are all Huskies today,” some of which were from people from other schools.
Came home and Liz found that the NIU site on Legacy now has 371 pages with about ten entries on each page.
This Still Hasn’t Completely Registered.
To read all three of RoadDog’s heartfelt entries, click here: 1, 2, 3.
Click here to read bios of the five fallen students and a schedule of memorial services.
Violence sadly came to Northern Illinois University along the Lincoln Highway in DeKalb, Illinois (pop 43,000) yesterday when a former graduate student entered a lecture hall and opened fire, killing six, wounding 15, and then killing himself. The campus has 25,000 students about 65 miles west of downtown Chicago. The university’s 
Lincoln Highway News 