Fear

12/13/2012

Fear

It happened again yesterday at a mall in Oregon, some guy with a gun and a bad attitude shoots innocent people.  I'm sure when those people left their house to probably do their holiday shopping, they didn't know it was going to be the last thing they would ever do.  And I wonder how loose does the screw in your head have to be in order to do this?  I'm really okay with someone taking themselves out - but leave the rest of us alone.

The shooter in this incident killed himself.  Did he do that to avoid the future he would surely face? I know you're innocent until proven guilty but it's pretty hard to believe a man's innocent when he's holding the gun. Or was his intention to die anyway?

The last time Jeff and I went to the movies I couldn't help but glance at the exit door.  While I'm not overly paranoid, we're living in a different world than the one I knew growing up.  My childhood years were innocent ones compared to what children are exposed to today.  It's sad to know that most children no longer play outside unsupervised and will never know the freedom that we boomers had way back then.  It's sad that we feel the need to routinely lock our car doors when we're driving to avoid a car jacking.  Did anybody even do that back in the 60's?  I don't think so.  Likewise, we lock the doors to our homes even when we're inside.

When I'm out and about my purse is always and I do mean always on my shoulder.  I never put it in the cart and if I did I would certainly not walk away to check out something.  I've been in stores and seen purses in carts and the owner of the purse (I assume) is too far away to see and/or prevent someone from lifting her wallet.  I hate to say it this way but the truth is - I am no longer a trusting person and I realize it's not a good attitude but it's a realistic one.

I've decided we're not in Kansas any longer.  The world is, at times, a scary place and we need to be sure we're paying attention and not become the next victim.

P