I had just gotten home after a couple of days in Washington DC. I had greeted my wife, looked in on the kids, unpacked a little, and before long was heading to bed tired from my trip. Then my wife received a text asking if she was ok. She inquired of what her friend meant. It was then we heard. A man went on a shooting spree that would end with six people dead and two people wounded. We took to Twitter and Facebook searching for information. With each tidbit of information, we pieced together the horror of what had happened only a couple of miles from outside our front door.

The suspect, now in custody, is believed to be an Uber driver who was randomly killing people between giving out rides. The first at an apartment complex on the far side of town. Then the violence moved. As people asked for rides, entering in the location of a party, a visit with a friend, or just a ride home they were selecting the locations of his next attack. He would drop the people off and find someone nearby and open fire. Letting random strangers unknowingly pick his next victims.

I was speechless. Things like this don’t happen in my town. This place is safe. One of the killings took place where I get my car fixed. A father and son had stopped to look a the cars for sale there. Another took place in the parking lot a restaurant my girls love. Things like this don’t happen in my town. I’m angry, I’m sad, I’m confused. We live in a safe community. I don’t give going outside at night a second thought. Things like this don’t happen in my town.

Until it did. In my town. We hear about these random acts of violence often on the news. Every single one a reprehensible act that we all hope will be the last. But it doesn’t change our lives. It happened far away and to someone else. But this time, it didn’t happen to someone else. This time, it happened to my town. The town where I went to school, and where I met my wife. The town that my kids were born in. The town that inspired my name, ever wonder what “Kzoo” stood for? My town, Kalamazoo MI. had become the site of the 42nd mass shooting in the United States this year.

Fortunately, the local police apprehended the suspect without incident a few hours later. The danger had passed and anyone not directly affected can go back to their everyday lives. But something’s different. I don’t feel unsafe, I don’t worry my girls are in danger. But I don’t feel comfortable either. I just feel uneasy, confused, numb. I’m unsure of how to feel or how to handle something like this. I didn’t know the victims, but I don’t feel removed like I did when it happened in someone else’s town.

My wife and I decided not to tell our girls what happened. We don’t think they could understand it. It would just scare them, make them uneasy. They will learn about the evils of this world soon enough. Right now, I am happy to shield them from this. they don’t need to know what happened at the restaurant they like. They don’t need to worry whenever they hear about us grabbing an Uber ride. One day we will explain it. For now, we will protect them from this.

I know some day soon, the headlines will fade. The news will move on to some new story somewhere else and the national media will once again forget about my town. We will move on too. We will feel safe again. We will return to the affected businesses forgetting the horrors that happened there. But something will never be the same. No longer can something like this not happen here. Because it did. It is happening all over the world, and it happened in my town.

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