Yesterday’s leisurely afternoon in the Giant City lodge afforded me the opportunity to take a close look at the next few days and sort out some alternative plans. Originally, I had intended to complete the River-to-River Trail today, walking out to Grand Tower, but I scrapped that plan for a few reasons–the trail is just too waterlogged at this point over the last week, the campground in Grand Tower is closed for repairs, and I was eager to encounter a bit more humanity. Plus, there was a great variant to pursue instead.
I left Giant City on a small footpath running northward along the top of the rocks, popping from viewpoint to craggy viewpoint. After passing through the hippie village of Makanda (still very sleepy at that early hour), a minor road led me northward, first through deep woods and then gradually into more open fields. The air was cool and dry; it felt like a Saturday morning in Portland and I couldn’t have been more buoyant. Eventually, the road delivered me into Southern Illinois University, home of the Salukis (as the over-sized paw-prints on every road through campus help to remind), and I walked through the full length of the sprawling, shady campus. Transitioning into the town of Carbondale, I was surprised to discover Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome–or, at least, the only one that he designed that he actually lived in.
My destination for the day was Murphysboro. Here’s what I know about Murphysboro: 1) It became the county seat of Jackson County, IL when a fire destroyed the first seat’s courthouse in 1843; 2) In 1925, 234 people were killed by a tornado here; the largest death toll in any US town by any tornado ever; 3) In 1957, another F5 tornado hit here in December, the latest a tornado of such potency has ever struck an American town; 4) The most recent natural disaster occurred a decade ago, when a windstorm laid waste to the town and killed one man. Oh, and the town motto is “Ripe with possibilities.” Ripe, indeed!
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If you’ve kept a close eye on the trip pics on the Dave X USA Facebook page, you may have noticed a handful of Trump signs or flags. I was curious, when I set out on this walk, just how much visible political advocacy I would encounter. Admittedly, we’re still a ways out from the 2020 election, so signage is sure to proliferate in the months ahead, but I still anticipated seeing some visible manifestation of popular will.
On the contrary, I’ve seen precious little. American flags predominate, of course, and that could be seen as a political statement in its own right (though I imagine many people flying the colors would disagree), but beyond that there have only been a few towns that stood out for having anything resembling a groundswell of pro-Trump sentiment, places like Cross Plains and Mount Vernon, Indiana. I’ve seen a grand total of one sign for a local Democratic candidate for a town council; not a peep about Biden, Warren, or any of the dozens of others in the national running. Strikingly, the most prolific, coordinated push for signage was a series of “Pro-Union Home” postings, mostly concentrated around Evansville, Indiana.
All of that said, I halted abruptly when I passed a house near Carbondale this morning with a sign calling for “Justice for Molly.” Nobody was home to explain, but the Facebook page tells Molly’s story in agonizing detail:
“As many of you know, our beloved Molly Marie Young was stolen from us on Saturday, March 24 2012. Molly was called to the Carbondale apartment of her ex-boyfriend around 3:00 A.M. that morning with a plea of “Help me”. He had been drinking the night before but Molly had no alcohol in her system. She was killed by a gunshot wound to the top left side of her head shortly afterwards.”
The page continues to explain what its authors (Molly’s family and supporters) find as a colossal series of errors committed by Carbondale and Illinois State Police, and the stonewalling performed by her ex-boyfriend, Richie Minton. Oh, by the way, Minton worked for Carbondale police as a dispatcher.
Minton has argued that Molly overdosed and committed suicide. He has never been charged with a crime. A state prosecutor determined that evidence for indictment was insufficient, but he also declined to rule it a suicide. While the case gained some national attention in 2017, when it was featured on Crime Watch Daily, and a subsequent feature on Investigation Discovery in 2018, and despite efforts on the state legislative front to lend support to victims in such cases with the passage of Molly’s Law, the Young family seems to be farther than ever from finding justice for Molly.
