Cops And Vikings
I attended a high school football game Friday night. It was my kids’ high school homecoming game. There were everything you expect at a high school game, bright lights, an expansive green field, high school kids, a band, and of course police officers with M16 machine guns.
Oh, and helicopters including a news chopper over the football game.
There was a threat made against my kids’ high school today. Well, the threat was discovered earlier this week. The date in the threat was today: Homecoming.
The police didn’t rate the threat as credible, but of course, had to take it seriously none-the-less. A kid found one of the programmable calculators in the math lab. Someone had typed a threatening message on the calculator’s display.
Police from all over Utah county converged on Pleasant Grove High School today. K9 units roamed the halls. Counselors were standing by to help anyone that didn’t feel safe.
My kids reported that their classes were mostly empty. The joke was,
Anyone at school today doesn’t really care if they get shot.
Why were my kids there? Did they not care about a potential school schooting. . .even a less than credible threat? Of course they did. But, they also didn’t see a need to live their lives in fear.
A few months ago I wrote a post called “Leading Boy Scouts To Their Death.” I asked the question “Why do we take our children into the wilderness and risk their deaths?”
I think my children went to school today because they learned the lesson from my earlier post. Life isn’t safe. Sure, we take precautions. But, when it comes down to it life isn’t rated “E for Everyone.” It’s dangerous at times. You can choose to deal with the danger or ignore it. Ignoring it either looks like YOLO (You Only Live Once) where you become reckless, or more importantly it becomes a matter of figuring out the risks and then choosing to live your life anyway.
My kids are the second type. So, they went to school. They noted the dogs and the cop cars. They noted the snipers on the roof. They noticed the automatic weapons at the stadium gates. And then they went off with their friends and cheered their team, The Vikings on to a 56-0 victory over Westlake High School.
Life is crazy. It’s messy. It’s hectic and yes, sometimes it’s dangerous. Don’t ignore the danger, but don’t let it immobolize you. You never know what you might miss.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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