Today, the gunman still at large, much of the state is virtually on lockdown. Schools and colleges are closed, as are government offices, gyms, many supermarkets and retail establishments including LL Bean and the entire Maine Mall. Naturally, people are freaked out, including me. So far today I have not ventured out my front door, and it's almost three in the afternoon. All because of one man.
Oddly enough, this is not my first rodeo, and I was much less frightened during the last one. In October 2002 I was living in Washington D.C. during the 3-week long siege of the "Beltway Snipers." Two men, one in his 40s and the other just a boy of 17, drove around the city and surrounding suburbs shooting -- and killing -- people at random on the street.
Yes, I feared for my safety, as did everyone, but still life went on. My son, then in high school, went to classes each day. I shopped for food. My husband and I went to the movies, went out for dinner and filled our gas tanks, even though one murder happened while a lone woman was doing just that.
This time, nobody has the courage to do much of anything. On TV, the authorities, urge us to "shelter in place" and "hunker down." What's happened to make our society so much more wary in the ensuing years? Has the increase in mass shootings since the days of the D.C. Sniper -- there have been 36 so far this year -- made us smarter, or have we simply grown more fearful of our fellow man?
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