{"id":15257,"date":"2016-06-14T18:32:11","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T18:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=15257"},"modified":"2016-06-14T18:33:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T18:33:07","slug":"terrorism-begets-frayed-nerves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=15257","title":{"rendered":"Terrorism begets frayed nerves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"terrorism-580x375\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tragedies such as what occurred in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend have a sobering impact on all of us.<\/p>\n

We’re all on edge. The nation has been shaken.<\/p>\n

Then something happens closer to home — a lot closer<\/em> to home, in fact — and your hair stands straight up in a manner it otherwise might not had the earlier tragedy not occurred.<\/p>\n

This morning I was driving home from an assignment in Pampa, Texas. My phone rang; I answered it\u00a0using the Bluetooth device in my truck. It’s my wife.<\/p>\n

“Where are you?” she asked. I tell her I’m on Amarillo Boulevard about to turn south onto Loop 335.<\/p>\n

“Don’t go near Interstate 27 and Georgia Street,” she\u00a0instructed me. “The police have it blocked off. There’s a shooter.”<\/p>\n

Holy s***!<\/em><\/p>\n

It turns out that someone was holding someone else hostage inside the Walmart store at that intersection. Police had cordoned off the area. They were negotiating with the gunman.<\/p>\n

I got home and watched the news. Not much time after returning home came word that\u00a0law enforcement officers had shot the gunman to death. The hostage is OK.<\/p>\n

The crisis is over. Now comes the investigation into what happened and why.<\/p>\n

Then it occurred to me. This is what acts of terror do to people. The gunman in Orlando might have committed that horrific act for any number of reasons.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is this: He terrorized that community and in the process put the rest of this very large and powerful nation on edge.<\/p>\n

Suffering the symptoms of fear as a result of a terrorist act is no fun at all.<\/p>\n

Quite obviously, I’m glad the crisis is over and that the Amarillo Police Department,\u00a0the Randall County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety, which I know to be run by dedicated professionals, did\u00a0their jobs.<\/p>\n

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for keeping us safe.<\/p>\n

We all can breathe again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tragedies such as what occurred in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend have a sobering impact on all of us. We’re all on edge. The nation has been shaken. Then something happens closer to home — a lot closer to home, in fact — and your hair stands straight up in a manner it otherwise might … Continue reading Terrorism begets frayed nerves<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[325,6312,4555,4608,5161],"class_list":["post-15257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-uncategorized","tag-amarillo-police-department","tag-orlando-shooting","tag-terror","tag-texas-dps","tag-walmart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15257"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15261,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15257\/revisions\/15261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}