Big Plans, Bad Day....

I woke on Monday with big plans.  After coffee, I jumped in and started by striping my bed and getting fresh sheets put on.  I had the TV on to some of my lessor channels.  So it took a while to realize that there was another horrendous tragedy unfolding in D.C.  Once I realized that, I found the wind had gone out of my sails and I ended up staring at the TV... just like I had on 9-11.  I hated what I was seeing.  I wanted to turn the channel but I had to watch.

The frightening thing for me is that my brother, who just retired on the first of this month, was a civilian working for the Navy.  He was based in Dahlgren, VA but would go into D.C. from time to time for meetings.  I texted him and asked if that was where he would go to his meetings and he texted back... Yes!  I could only begin to imagine how much more horrifying it would have been if he was still working.  His son, Tommy, is also working for the government since graduating from Virginia Tech.  But my brother said he is not in the Navy Yard.  Prayers answered.

My thoughts and prayers go to the families  of those who lost their lives and the workers and first responders who were injured.  I am keeping those workers who were not injured but had to survive the day and now live with those memories and have to deal with the loss of co-workers.

When something like this happens the news media concentrate so much on the who did it and why.  Until the families who suffered loss can come to terms with the events, we will not get to know the people who were killed.  And there may be some we will never get to know as their family will choose to keep everything private.  But the ripples of yesterday will go to the friends and family of the shooter, the workers in other buildings as well as the building where the workers died.  The law enforcement people who secured the scene will be forever altered, the neighborhood will lose the sense of security that it had.  And we are all changed, our sense of well-being has been dinged, yet again.

I was speaking to a friend this morning.  He commented that it seems that the world is getting more dangerous.  I have to agree... to a point.  I sometimes wonder if things like this happened years ago, before the news media was able to send news around the world within moments of it happening.  In this case, I think I prefer the 'good old days'.

I wonder what these events are doing to our children growing up.  Is there a generation growing up who will think that the way to make things that they think are wrong into a right is to take a gun or guns and shoot?  As you all know, I have been in the process of arming myself against intruders.  I have purchased two firearms and am learning the proper way to shoot, take care of and secure them.  I hope that I never have to use them, other than on a gun range.  And I hope and pray that we find a way to prevent such a senseless tragedy, as we saw yesterday, in the future.