I'm feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the events of last week ~ I'm not particularly emotional by nature ~ well, that's not exactly true ~ I'm not particularly overtly emotional by nature ~ I tend to keep a lot inside while I work thru the issues ~ but I'm feeling like I'm on overload ~ I know there's nothing that could have been done to stop the marathon bombings, and I see the aftermath as being handled as well as humanly possible ~ I also recognize that it could have been FAR worse ~

The plant explosion in Texas is awful ~ the loss of life, including several first responders, and the surrounding physical damage ~ what's gnawing at me is that I see this as a belated but direct result of deregulation and horrendous "city planning" ~

And the background check failure has left me feeling sick at heart ~ we are in the midst of a deadly epidemic, our streets/neighborhoods/schools becoming war zones ~ you need a background check to get a job or rent an apartment or buy a home, but not to buy semi-automatic weapons or massive amounts of ammo????? ~ I'm waffling between deep sadness and rage ~

Sooz

My emotional overload started with the shooting of Tom Clements...and it just gets worse as the news gets worse. While I know the odds are 99.9% the younger brother is guilty, and the horror of people clutching hemorrhaging limbs and losing limbs and people dying is still horribly fresh, I just hurt for all of those involved...I hurt for the family of the alleged bombers, i hurt for the victims and their families, for the young cop killed, even for the young 19 yr old shooter shot up hiding in a boat...all of it is just too horrible. If i or any of my loved ones had been killed or maimed by the suspects, i doubt I would have any sympathy for the shooter, but looking from afar, I just plain hurt for everyone involved.

The Texas fertilizer plant didn't have an inspector in decades. Of course the CEO didn't keep an adopted puppy on factory proper. Only tons and tons of chemicals which can go kaboom!