Too young, too soon.

As most of the country knows, a fatal mass shooting occurred at Fort Hood on Thursday, November 5th, 2009. And as most of the Middlesex County of Massachusetts knows, a fatal accident occurred the same day. Although these two incidences are hardly related to each other, they have both struck a chord of fear in my heart.

Because both events represent the insecurity of our everyday American lives.

How is it that something we do so routinely everyday can all of a sudden kill us? Or the very thing we are trying to protect betrays us, on the brink of our most nervous moments?

How can any of us feel safe anymore? The security that we should normally feel in a place we consider home, in an act that we consider routine or second-nature, seems to have dissipated. Now we have to think twice before doing the normal things or feeling the normal feelings. Because otherwise...

...what if?