In My Neck of the Woods

I immediately thought of former students I advised who love to go clubbing in Orlando, and have been frantically telling all of them to check in.


Our European ILIASM have lived with these types of scenes for decades, and I grew up under the threat of terrorism (in Latin America). I NEVER thought the skills I learned in grade school, on how to protect myself from an active shooter depending on the sound of the rounds used, would be something I would use when I moved to the US. Sadly, that arrived over ten years ago, and never left.



Keeping our Orlando friends bballgirl and obobfla, those who lost their lives or were injured, their families, friends, the City of Orlando, our State and our Country in my thoughts and prayers.


Love > hate

I guess that's what it's come to.   

Fortunately I live a good 70 miles east. This is becoming an everyday occurrence in America. I stopped watching the local news due to the every day killings that occur in Orlando.

It's kind of like a SM or divorce. Or when I drove my 18wheeler(- rigs flipped over, accidents). You see it happen to other people. And you think that won't happen to me. Then when it does it changes your perspective!

To bad the image Florida gets from the media. Like other states that have the good and the bad.

You're so right Kat, how did we get to the point where this is "another mass shooting"? How did we get to the point that there ever was one? Blame can and will be spread around...guns, Islam, the FBI, too much religion, not enough religion, homophobia...every pundit and armchair sociologist is going to weigh in on who or what "went wrong." Then it will go wrong again. I remember reaching a point where when I heard in the news that an Israeli shot a Palestinian, or a Palestinian shot an Israeli, I wondered why it was even in the news anymore. Not that it doesn't matter, but that it's routine. I'm afraid it's getting like that here; but having people we care about in this little online community who are close to it puts the jolt back into it.

It just goes to show that Man is the most vicious animal of all. Cherish the good people in your life, because there are a lot of bad ones out there.

The massacre in Orlando was the first thing that hit me in the face Sunday morning when I turned on the news. I don't watch much news any more because the "news" has slowly devolved into a kind of macabre entertainment industry. I have gotten in the habit of turning on the weekend news mainly to get the weather forecast to know if I should pack a rain jacket for my bike ride. This really hit me hard. Here I was with my sole concern whether or not I would encounter thunderstorms before I completed a bike ride, and all the while 50 innocent people are dead, and others were fighting for life as I went about my normal Sunday routine.

I think smartkat was alluding to the fact this is almost routine now. She's right. And how sad for all of us. There was a time when even one murder was an outrage. Where I live, we have about 100 murders a year in the city. We don't care. I don't care. Just another day in the life. Until it hits on a scale we can't ignore.

I know this is not what this particular forum is about, but I thank obobfla for taking time. Just another of the many things that put life in perspective.

Thanks to all those who are helping in whatever way they can.