Seattle Pacific University
Yesterday while I was at work, I took a break and turned to the SeattleTimes.com website to discover the news about the shootings at Seattle Pacific University. (TheStranger.com has the story without requiring sign-in or subscription. More at The New York Times.) SPU, a lovely, quiet campus, a Christian university, is a one-block walk from my house and, generally speaking, the students are good neighbors. Campus security sometimes drives down the alley behind my building. My bus stop is right there, so I'm on campus every morning.
The news shook me up. My first thought, oddly, was for the safety of my cats, an irrational thing, I know, but they were home and I was at the office, and home was very close to where the incident occurred. At the same time, I was reading that one suspect had been apprehended and another was still at large; going home seemed dicey. (We now know there was only one suspect and he was caught right away by a student monitor, assisted by others.)
As it turned out, on the way to the bus stop, I ran into lindad whom I hadn't seen in a while, and we ended up having dinner together. This had the dual benefit of our catching up with each other and me staying out of the neighborhood while things sorted themselves out. I got home about 7:30 PM (my homecoming bus stop is two long blocks from campus on the opposite side of the street) to a neighborhood that seemed undisturbed, though I could see, in the distance, a lot of cars near my morning stop. But into the evening, the area was so quiet it seemed as though nothing untoward had happened. It was eerie.
I'm horrified by what's happened. I've stayed away since yesterday afternoon; I don't want to get in anyone's way. But my heart goes out to everyone connected to the school, especially those families affected. What a horror. And yes, the students who apprehended the suspect? Heroes indeed. But I hate the necessity of their heroism.
It's been one helluva week.
The news shook me up. My first thought, oddly, was for the safety of my cats, an irrational thing, I know, but they were home and I was at the office, and home was very close to where the incident occurred. At the same time, I was reading that one suspect had been apprehended and another was still at large; going home seemed dicey. (We now know there was only one suspect and he was caught right away by a student monitor, assisted by others.)
As it turned out, on the way to the bus stop, I ran into lindad whom I hadn't seen in a while, and we ended up having dinner together. This had the dual benefit of our catching up with each other and me staying out of the neighborhood while things sorted themselves out. I got home about 7:30 PM (my homecoming bus stop is two long blocks from campus on the opposite side of the street) to a neighborhood that seemed undisturbed, though I could see, in the distance, a lot of cars near my morning stop. But into the evening, the area was so quiet it seemed as though nothing untoward had happened. It was eerie.
I'm horrified by what's happened. I've stayed away since yesterday afternoon; I don't want to get in anyone's way. But my heart goes out to everyone connected to the school, especially those families affected. What a horror. And yes, the students who apprehended the suspect? Heroes indeed. But I hate the necessity of their heroism.
It's been one helluva week.