The Editor's Desk

I was driving home after the spelling bee when I heard the report on the radio about the deadly shootings in Kirkwood, Missouri. I froze up behind the wheel for a second as the report spooled out; my father, sister, and nephew live in Kirkwood. I lived there for several years while I went to college. I heard that six were dead in a Kirkwood shooting first and grew nervous, then at the end of the sentence the explanation that the shooting was at City Hall and relaxed just a little bit.

My family isn’t directly involved in city politics, so I was fairly confident they wouldn’t have been there. However, my dad is involved with the Lion’s Club there and knows many of the community leaders. He is acquainted with some of these people who were shot, and even knew more about the shooter than the AP report indicated at the time. He filled me in on the man’s history when I called him at home to make sure they were all okay.

Fortunately, my family is safe. For that moment, and for the first time in my life, I felt what it must be like for anybody out there who hears a report of a tragedy on the news and not know whether or not it has affected their loved ones.

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