I planned to publish an essay today about things I don’t hate about living in Chambana, based on a question from Midwest Neurotica.
Instead, I am too busy thinking about what could have happened yesterday when Mr. Chicken was at school.
You see, the man who walked into a classroom at Northern Illinois University yesterday afternoon and started killing people was also an enrolled student at the Huge Midwestern University here in town, where Mr. C is a student.
When the CNN ticker hit the computer screens of our families, our phone started to ring. Just checking, they said, the name is so similar …
This person bought his weapons here in town. He shared streets with us. He maybe sat next to us at a local coffee shop or restaurant. Maybe he was in line behind us at Wal-Mart.
He could have chosen our campus.
It is just a hair too close for comfort. So forgive me if I don’t count the ways in which I don’t hate Chambana today.
Instead, I am thinking of how lucky we are, and of the dead children of grieving parents.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
This had not yet shown up on my bloglines, and I was coming here to e-mail you and make sure everything was O.K. This is such a crazy, mixed up world.
I’m so glad that you are all sound. I’m not sure any of us are safe.
that’s FAR too close to home.
We had a little girl murdered in a town near here. That’s too close for me as well.
Since we had a similar incident happen here at the beginning of December last year, I know exactly how you feel.
Glad that nothing happened to you or your family.
I am so glad y’all are okay.
Oh my word. Of course you’re upset.
I’m counting my blessings now,too.
How frightening.
The real world is so much scarier than any movie!
I don’t understand it. When did it become okay for people to vent anger in that way? Makes me scared for the future.
How upsetting. I’m glad you are all ok, but I imagine you will be unsettled for awhile.
Oh man…Since we are just outside of Chicago, this is all that has been on our news. Scary stuff. When will it end?
Yeah, it can happen anywhere. It is terrifying.
I would be terrified as well! I’m happy for you that everyone in your family is safe and well!
I just don’t understand that rage
Just hold your Pooh, set aside everything but love, for yourself and you family. It’s all that matters.
I know exactly how you feel. Every time I think about teaching, I feel like I also need an exit strategy. I never thought I was getting into a dangerous profession.
We can’t possibly understand things like this. Every day we have with our loved ones is such a gift. The best we can do is spread that love around us, in hopes that it touches someone who really needs it.
as they kept mentioning the school and the name of the town i kept thinking of you wondering where you were when this horrible thing was happening.
All I could think of was why this didn’t happen in Chambana. This is one crazy world. My heart goes out to all affected.
Oh gee! Because nobody ever killed anyone in New York. I’m not even remotely surprised that you would turn this terrible tragedy into your own personal “I still hate CU please feel sorry for me” post. We get it. You hate central Illinois. Can you possibly move on?
How about the kids’ parents whose kids won’t be coming home. Ever again. Could you step outside of yourself to think of them for a second?
Dear Suzi,
That was exactly my point. How sorry I was for those parents (did you read the last line?) and how lucky we were that this madman did not turn his guns on the students here, of which my husband is one.
This is a terrible tragedy and if you read this post again you will see that I was about to write an essay about what I like about living here – which I have done several other times.
Perhaps you, Suzi, should move on, and stop reading my blog if you cannot keep yourself from leaving rude and inaccurate comments.
And no, where I lived in NY, no one ever took a gun and mowed down 20 people.
Oh, and smooth move how you used a fake email address so we couldn’t converse privately. I guess you didn’t want to risk that I might respond to you in a rational, intelligent way.
Clever.
Apparently, the man who did this at NIU had been taking medication for some unspecified mental illness and stopped taking his meds a couple of weeks ago. That certainly does not excuse what he did in any way, but helps to explain. He didn’t have a vendetta against a certain person. I feel for his family – that they (and the victims’ families as well) will have to live with all the unanswered questions. God, I know all too well what they’re going through and they are all in my prayers.
I know that sense of shock. He bought the guns here in C-U but then traveled all the way up to DeKalb. Who knows why he did that? Chilling, for sure.
It’s all so sad.
It is a terrible reminder that these things can come to a town near you. Awful.
And Suzi?
Get a grip, dude.
Hugs to you guys.
you’re certainly forgiven. It breaks my heart each time something like this happens, for obvious reasons, but also for all the people who are now living in fear, thinking, “that could have been me….” It’s so unfair to have to live that way.
Hugs to all of you.
I was thinking the same thing Mrs. Chicken. My mom called me 6 times before she got me, confused about the location and worried about my husband. Will he have to wear a bullet-proof vest to teach? Sigh..
and Suzy…reading is fundamental..
Looky looky, Mrs. Chicken’s got a troll. And it’s an extra special super sized Central Illinois trolls (the “s” is silent).
Those are the best kinds (again, silent “s”).
Great accents (see a pattern?)
You have now made it, my friend.
That is terrifying. I think that knowing how close we all come to tragedies makes us more empathetic to those they actually hit.
Congrats on the troll, btw. I still don’t have one.
The “what ifs” in those situations are just too awful to think about. That story made me ill last week. I cannot imagine.