Remembering 10 Years Ago

While we were thinking about cancer victims on Tuesday, I was also remembering another group of victims.  People who were going about their routine lives, suddenly shot dead.  Abruptly, cutting the grass, filling the car, walking across parking lots and going to school were dangerous and lethal activities.  Ten years ago last Tuesday, the DC snipers started their killing spree.

The victims were ordinary people, fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, sons and daughters.  So needlessly killed.  I can only imagine the disbelief and pain their families suffered.  Ten years later, my heart still goes out to them, especially the children who grew up without one of their parents.  Maybe no father/ daughter dance for one, or perhaps only one proud parent watching their child graduate or marry.  What kind of financial and emotional difficulties did they endure because there was just one parent?

Schools were in lock down mode, no students were allowed outside for any reason.  People afraid to carry out the most mundane activities debated when and where the safest places were.  In fact, for three long and grueling weeks, no place was safe.

On the morning of Oct. 22, the roads to work were grid locked.  The roads had been shut down and police were checking cars one by one.  I didn't need the news to know someone else had been shot.  But, for the first time, there was hope.  Since there were plans in place to immediately seal the area after the next shooting, maybe the police would get lucky and find them.  Two days later the snipers were arrested asleep at a rest stop.

So I reflect on the wasted lives and painful aftermath.  Although the families were changed forever, I hope they were able to put the pieces of their lives back together.  And that the right people stepped forward to help them at the right time.  My condolences still.

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One thing from that time comes to mind and makes me smile still (the only one).  I don't remember where I heard it, perhaps I read it in the newspaper, or perhaps saw it on the news.  There were all kinds of advice on how to avoid being hit by a bullet.  One technique was to walk sideways (as though you would know what direction the bullet would come from) and bob up and down as you walked.  I hope no one took that advice seriously, but I would have loved to have seen it.  I think it would be one of the funniest sights ever seen in a parking lot.