2022-07-03
At Freedom Park, I see the lone 7-eleven that closed in 2020. “Temporary store closure,” the sign on its door says. But it hasn’t opened even after stores inside and outside the campus have. It is a reminder of what the pandemic has done. Meanwhile, around the park, a crowd of unmasked joggers, walkers, and picnickers remind me of what life was before the pandemic and what it could be in the months ahead.
Further up the park, I see the marker for the internment camp. I’ve seen it in the past but didn’t care much until I read the accounts of what happened inside that place. The marker sits beside Baker Hall, which is weird because Baker Hall was never part of the camp. The choice of its location was perhaps pragmatic. Let’s put it away from the park itself, away from the grasses where picnickers now sit and football players kick ball, away from where a skull may once have rolled and where grass once turned crimson.