I Hereby Promise....

To take more note of things.

To remember that we are all here in this life together.

That what happens on a campus many miles away from me is still relevant to someone I'm bound to know.

For all the community activism I'm involved with, I tend to live with my head in the sand with respect to news.

TV - I try not to watch the news when the kids are up, end up watching programming that is mindless and a great time-suck, only to fall in bed exhausted as the 10 o'clock news comes on.

Radio - I likes me some modern rock...which means, news, eh, not so much. Charlie Brown, on the other hand, he listens to 850 KOA all the time. I keep trying to tell him Rush Limbaugh is not a reliable newssource.

Newsprint - We don't subscribe to a paper. We've found that it usually does nothing but ensure our recycle bin is full to the max each week. But, I do frequent the online editions of my local papers from time to time.

All this to say that yesterday, I got to work without any big impressions. Set about to get a few tasks done, and had to make a call to the homeless shelter in Fort Collins' director - "Sister" H. "Sister" is called such with much joking and yet admiration, b/c she runs the Catholic homeless shelter, and she really isn't a nun despite everyone's immediate assumption as much. (We don't do the nuns in habit thing here in N. CO)

Sister answers and she sounds awful.

"Hey, Sister, you ok?"

"No...my grandson goes to Virginia Tech...."

Virginia Tech, virginia tech....???

Then suddenly, I recalled a blip on the tv just before going out the door - a shooting.

"...I've been really worried, but I just got the call that he's ok."

Her fear struck me and made my blood run cold. God, thank you for his protection - help those in need.

"Sister, I'm so sorry. It's awful, isn't it? I'm glad that your grandson made it ok - but wow, you're all pretty shaken I'm sure...."

We ended up talking for awhile about the matter for which I'd called...and then some...LMNOB's eval (relevant to the meeting I'd called about - I was removing myself from the agenda), etc.

After I got off the phone, the Boss and I began to watch the death toll rise on the AP's link to the Coloradoan, which was at 30...then 31...32...and 33.

And think about how it could be our town, since we are a college town too...

I still don't understand, I hope I never do, what could drive someone to commit such a heinous and devastating crime.