As you know, a shooter with an assault rifle went into Los Angeles International Airport today and killed a TSA agent and wounded others.
After hearing some of the details, it’s a miracle more people weren’t hurt or killed, not to diminish the pain and anguish of those who were.
Many of my friends and I are at LAX at least one, if not several, times a month. I wasn’t there today, but a number of my friends were. Luckily, none of them were in Terminal 3 when the shootings occurred and they were quickly on Facebook trying to find out information since they weren’t in front of TVs or computers. And, mainly, they were glad they were safe but as hour after hour passed with no update on when they were be able to fly, they grew really annoyed. I imagine they would have felt a little less irritation if they had been in the terminal and had to run from the shooter.
We take it for granted when we go to the airport that we will be able to get where we’re going reasonably on time. Otherwise, I guess we’d all be flying at least a day earlier than we needed to be somewhere. Later today, I was at a movie junket where journalists had been flown in from all over the country and they were scrambling to figure out ways to get back home. Air delays are one of those things that are so stressful at the time, but really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
People walking into airports --or anywhere-- with guns is one of those things that will never not matter. I was fascinated by how quickly people got on their idealogical pedestals and were making comments to support their position instead of taking a minute to breathe and send good thoughts to those injured. If feels like every incident escalates from a moment of sympathy to a bully pulpit to shout out your position and to let the debate continue.
So today, no debate from me. If you’ve read this blog with any regularity, you know where I stand on this issue. Instead, I’ll just wish for healing for the people shot today and for the families of the victims, and put my money where my mouth is and give to a cause that is trying to keep atrocities like what happened at LAX from happening again.
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