Sadness

What a great weekend to have this weekend! I was really thinking that I would slide into the weekend and be miserable. On Friday, I accidently ended up squishing my right index finger in the door of the car. I thought perhaps my finger would prevent me from being able to really do a whole lot. I was finally able to have relief Friday night. One would not think that such a small thing could really mess you up.....try it!! I am right handed and the blow was devastating. My whole hand hurt. My finger WHUP WHUPed for 24 hours. No fun!!
Saturday Pete, Lila and I went downtown to the Twilight Criterium. We had been to an earlier bike race to watch Pete's friend John ride. There is nothing in the world like cycling! What a great sport! But Saturday evening we had dinner at Doc Chey's downtown. It was delightful really. The crowd began to flock to downtown. We watched the hand cycle race which is always AWESOME!! Guys and one awesome lady ride hand cycles because they are either paraplegic or amputees. What amazing athletes!!! I dont know how they do it! Their arms are as big as some of the regular cyclists legs!!!
We then watched a kid ride. If I had had a camera with me, I would have taken a picture of this little 2-3 yr old little girl with helmet, elbow pads, knee pads and training wheels go toodling around the block as serious and determined as one of the grownups. Everyone cheered for this little beauty on her bike!!
The ladies raced next. We stood in front of the Georgia Theatre, just as we have for the last several years. We aren't really sickos waiting for folks to crash....really!! But there was a crash right in front of us. Fortunately not one of the two ladies were seriously injured. On a couple of occcasions as the ladies road by, their pedals would clip the baracade making a sound....ahhh just a little too close!!! How exciting!! Talk about something that will get your heart racing!!!
Despite all of the fun and excitement of the weekend, there was a horrible event that loomed over me like a dark cloud. One of the professors at UGA, ended up killing his wife and two other gentlemen at our local Town and Gown theatre. I felt personally weighted down by this horrible killing because my friend Kris had recently been divorced from one of the fellows that was murdered. They had a daughter together. When I heard about what happened, my first thought was to whether or not Kris had either been a witness or if she could have been one of the ones hurt in the shootings. Since none of the family members had been notified that their loved one had been murdered, the names had not been released. But I had heard that a person with Kris' last name had been killed. I was so scared that Kris had been harmed. I had found out that in fact it was her ex-husband. I was sick. All night last night, all I could do was think of Kris and her daughter. I thought about the families of the other victims. Evidently the professor and his wife had two young children. I can not imagine what life is like for them right now without a mom and a dad that is MIA. He is either on the run or decided that he would put and end to things himself.
Since Pete works for the Office of Security and Emergency prepardness at UGA, this is the exact sort of thing that they spend hours and hours educating students, facutly and staff about ALL THE TIME. People just think that Athens is just such a cute, little town that nothing ever happens in. The people at Virginia Tech and Columbine High thought the same thing....I know they did. Its easy to think that "Nothing like that will ever happen here." People, we are in the middle of a crisis. Our economy stinks. People are jobless. Depression and anxiety are on the rise. Drug addiction and alcohol abuse is way too prevalent. We have to take our heads out of the sand.
We have to stop thinking that we can walk alone outside at midnight, cuss people while we are driving and ignore strange, threatening comments that people make. Im not saying that we all need to be cynical and think that everyone in the world has gone bad. That's not the case. But the fact is that people are crying out for help all over this world. Too many people have anger management problems. We are a living in a world of hurt. And the truth is that not enough people know why were are here on this Earth. Not enough people have Faith in God. And too many folks feel utterly alone.
Ok so how do we fix this? What am I trying to say? We all just have to be more aware. We need to keep our eyes and ears open. We need to pray more and stop JUST TALKING ABOUT IT a lot less! We need to stop placing ourselves in situations that our internal warning system is blaring out that SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT. We need to stop thinking that nothing is ever going to happen here and prepare. Stop this false thinking that if we just have our cell phones in our hands so that we can dial 911, we will all be OK.
Women, we must know how to fight back. We must be educating our children about bullies, weapons (particularly guns) and strangers. As employers, we must stop turning a blind eye to folks that seem a little unstable and a bit hotheaded. If a person is making threatening comments on Myspace or in a blog....someone should seriously think about reporting it. We have to be careful and aware. That's all Im saying.
Should we all run out to Walmart and buy a shot gun now? Well....I dont know the answer to that. But I do think it is a good idea to learn some self defense and a little verbal judo. I also think its a good idea to keep our own wits about us and stop flying off the handle every time someone cuts us off while we are driving. For goodness sakes, we all get to where we are supposed to go in good time.