The Scary Part

Today I have read a few blogs and a column concerning our recent rash of gun violence in Seattle. I was going to write a post about my three most recent trips, and I will do those (I promise), but today, I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about travelling and dealing with violence.

Luckily, I have never been the victim of a violent crime. I have had things stolen, though. There was the time a "friend" stole my TV from my college dorm room. My husband's Honda station wagon was stolen three times (yeah, THREE times), and my entire purse was stolen while I was on vacation in Barcelona in 2005 (with three passports, our camera and my favorite lipstick).

But violent crime? No, that's never happened to me.

There are a few victims from these past weeks that stick out in my mind. The lady who was driving her car in Capitol Hill who was carjacked by the shooter from the cafe and was also shot dead. The young woman who was just walking around Pioneer Square and was shot dead by a person in a passing car. The man who had just picked up his parents from the airport and was heading off for a fun Memorial Day weekend and was killed by a stray bullet. The reason these stick out in my mind is because any of these people could have been me. My therapist said that the reason all of this is so alarming is because there are no rules about how to stay safe. None of these people were doing anything wrong or anything extraordinary. Now they are dead and their families are left to pick up the pieces. The citizens of Seattle are left shaking their heads, wondering who will die next.

There doesn't seem to be a reason or a pattern to this increase in violence. I want to reassure my readers that Seattle is normally a safe city. Yes, bad things happen here, it's a big city like any other. But for the moment it feels like things have gone off the rails.

When these kind of things happen, part of me goes numb. I feel like I should be screaming for more protection, protesting against gun ownership, calling on the mayor and the police to fix it, warning my children to be safe, worrying about my kids when they are at school. I don't do any of those things (ok - I do worry about my kids), I just feel numb. I feel like you can't talk sense to the anti-gun control people. For idealogical reasons, they just don't hear you. I don't know what the mayor or the police can do to save us, so why make demands from them? Given the state of our economy and strained budgets, what can we do about all the people who are getting out of prison or who need mental health services?

I am not saying that we shouldn't try or demand more of our public servants and more from our own citizenry. But I won't carry a gun. I just won't. That will make the chances of getting shot even higher. I won't move, either. I love my city, and like I said, it's actually fairly safe as far as big cities go.

I will probably restrict my movements for a while. But I still plan on going to the farmer's market and the swimming pool this weekend. And I will check in on the news. And when I have more information, I will likely write to the mayor with my concerns.

And I will still travel around the region and around the world. I love to travel. Most travellers arrive safely, have a good time and return home safely. It's importat to look at the situation and if your gut tells you something isn't right, trust it. As a visitor, it's a little harder to make those decisions because there are more unfamiliar variables, but you can still make the call. And don't worry about looking awkward or strange. I'd rather be embarrassed than hurt. Living life involves risk, and living a full life that includes travel involves more risks. That's a trade I'm willing to make.