Murder in Missoula

That's the title on the front of today's newspaper, and it is truly a tragic story. It's really, really gotten to me and I feel so angry and disgusted and helpless.

Here's the story: a homeless man named Forrest Clayton Salcido was sitting on a bench on pedestrian bridge a few nights ago. Two "kids," (A 18 year-old high school senior and his 20 year-old buddy), came upon him, taunted and beat him, and once they got him on the ground, stomped on his head until he was dead. They stomped so hard, and so many times, that the man, "Clay," was totally unrecognizable by his own brother. I know, gruesome.

No reason, none at all. The boys were drunk, Clay was not. And according to the lengthy story done by the local paper, the Missoulian, Clay was not a drunk, on drugs, mentally unstable, etc. He was just some guy who one day said, "Fuck this," and went off on his own. He has family and lots of friends in town whom he visited often, including a mother he saw every Sunday. He did odd jobs and recycled cans for cash, and he basically took care of himself. He liked his life the way it was, and he wasn't bothering anyone.

I'm not a stranger to this kind of viciousness myself, albeit as a witness, as I experienced back in Brooklyn three years ago. To be homeless, means to be a constant target, as if being homeless isn't tough enough in itself, add to that all the problems that many face. But the deep, dark cruelty of this act has really shook me. I don't think I really believe in pure evil, though I believe there can be immense darkness in anyone, and searching for a reason from these two boy killers is a lost cause. I don't believe in the death penalty either, though I suspect the rest of these boys' lives are a lost cause (they both already had lengthy rap sheets). But Clay's wasn't. He had many people who loved him, and I can't imagine how much the pain of losing him is compounded by how he died. I don't have any answers or solutions....just wanted to vent sorrow.