‘Tragedy” is a shopworn word, misused and overused to the point of meaninglessness.

Yet it is the word that keeps coming up again and again in discussions about the fatal shooting accident on Sauk Mountain a little more than a week ago.

Two brothers from the Concrete area, ages 14 and 16, were dropped off by their grandfather to go bear hunting in an area popular with hikers. The younger boy, believing that he was aiming at a bear, shot and killed 54-year-old Pamela Almli of Oso, a hiker who was on a trail about 120 yards away.

It was tragic, and it is a tragedy, in the most poignant sense of the word — for everyone involved.

That sense of pointless, preventable loss and lifelong emotional devastation for two families comes up repeatedly in the online forum discussions that have accompanied the Skagit Valley Herald’s coverage of the incident. (See reporter Tahlia Ganser’s story.)

It has been fascinating and insightful to read the discussions, which reflect deep-seated passions, firmly held convictions and, not infrequently, purely human ambivalence about what happened on the trail that day. Outrage, anguish and everything in between are spilling out onto the forum pages. Interestingly, we’ve had very few letters to the editor about the incident. Many readers see the forums as an immediate and less-constrained outlet. We encourage that.

In the absence of legal proceedings so far, conjecture about culpability and accountability is running rampant in the forum discussions. Who is to blame, or most to blame, is the fulcrum for much of the back-and-forth.

That can be a painful discussion. But for the most part, contributors have been civil and respectful even when their posts are powerfully worded and strongly opinionated. Only a few have taken on a tone of personal effrontery that can derail an otherwise productive discussion.

We have tried to be thorough and balanced in our coverage of the shooting, which in some cases has led readers to conclude that we are callously pro-hunter or predictably pro-hiker. Perspective is everything.

Our own perspective has been affected by this tragedy as well. The mother of the two boys involved in the incident works for the Skagit Valley Publishing Co. She is a well-liked and highly regarded employee, with an important job that carries plenty of responsibility. We feel for her and her family.

That connection has caused us to be more pro-active than usual about explaining our policies for naming people involved in events that may become criminal cases.

Our long-held policy is that we do not name people until they have been formally charged with a crime. Usually we don’t even name people who have been arrested until the charges have been brought, except in unusual circumstances.

More particularly, it is a matter of policy that we do not name juveniles involved in any investigation unless they are ultimately charged as adults — a rare occurrence. These are policies that we have consistently practiced for decades and we will continue to do so.

Some people have urged us to name the boys, or at least name their grandfather. If charges are brought, we will name any adults involved. We will continue to protect the identity of the boys — even though many upriver residents already know who they are — until extraordinary circumstances compel us to reconsider. To do otherwise could further compound a genuine tragedy.

• Don Nelson is editor of the Skagit Valley Herald. He can be reached at 360-416-2137 or by e-mail at .