Thread:OylerD/@comment-25989346-20160612175819/@comment-32738051-20160612201139

I so agree with you, Dean. And while I'm glad your son and those he knows there are all fine, I feel for his boyfriend and anyone else who knows someone who was hurt or killed in the attack.

You go right on ahead and climb on your soapbox anytime you want. Goodness knows I already have this time...I wish I took the time out to do so every time but I let my own life get in the way of that too often. Maybe if more of us were more vocal and condemned such incidents more often, something would more be done to prevent them, maybe even some people capable of such violence would be turned away from committing them. Actions speak louder than words but action is nearly always predicated on communication.

We are way too complacent in this world and it truly isn't safe anywhere anymore. And we aren't trained...not even in workplace violence trainings...to recognize the signs and do something about them. In every spree killing and terrorist attack that has ever occurred, including this one, I guarantee you there were signs that could have been acted upon, but weren't or at least not sufficiently, by someone who knew the perpetrator(s) in question. In this case, not only did the government have the killer on a watch list but also his former wife was abused by him and could have reported it - she even said he was unstable. It's likely he could have been jailed or committed long before this happened. Sometimes signs like these aren't acted upon for civil rights reasons or because the sign is too subject to interpretation. But sometimes the signs are clearer and should be acted upon but we either fail to notice them or we dismiss them as nothing to be so concerned about (or in some cases maybe we're afraid to do something about it). Perhaps not tomorrow or the next day but assuredly sometime before the next incident, our memories of this one will fade and I fear we will all forget until it's too late again.

And Pamster, I did cry when I read about this. And I remembered so many other such incidents that sadden me: WTC, Waco, Oklahoma, Centennial Olympic Park, Columbine, Virginia Tech, the Boston Marathon and so many others. I'm sure I will cry again before this also fades for me. I do try to not let signs in those I know pass without me saying or doing something and I hope I have helped prevent some I know from becoming so desperate and violent. Even so, I'm sure I haven't done enough. And yet I have been lucky not to have known anyone who did something like this. So far.