Prudent safety

All news is local, it is said, but local news affects us more deeply. Take the news -- and there's way too much of it -- about the atrocities humans commit on other humans. We are numbed when hundreds of people are slaughtered in a civil war somewhere in Africa. We are horrified when terrorists kill their own countrymen. We are shocked when a student goes on a killing spree in his own school. And we take note of the fact that these terrible events happened somewhere else.

Recent incidents in our own communities, however, show how vulnerable we are to similar tragedies: a bomb threat at the junior high school, an alleged threat with a shotgun at the university, a student stabbed repeatedly on a school bus in the Bootheel.

Being aware of the potential for harm, however, can quickly turn into immobilizing fear. Living with the thought that we are all targets of some deranged mind is impractical. Living prudently, however, makes good sense.

All of us have a role to play in protecting our own lives as well as the lives of others. If we see disturbing behavior in others, we need to gauge whether or not this is something that should be brought to the attention of a teacher or a supervisor, or possibly reported to the police.

There are no guarantees that any precautionary efforts will prevent violence. But we all can take a role in trying to make a free society as livable and safe as possible.