YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOT SAFE

Just when things couldn't get any weirder in these tense, post-September 11, pre-Gulf War, post-market meltdown times, leave it to a completely unexpected surprise to throw everyone for a loop: a sniper.

It's been a freaky couple of weeks here in the DC suburbs--as was the case with low-flying airplanes after Sept. 11, suddenly all these white trucks and vans that no one ever paid attention to have taken on ominous, frightening portents and seem to be everywhere (which, like the airplanes, they were all along). For a while, though, it still seemed a bit removed, even as I watched and wondered about the box truck idling in the parking lot last week. What exactly is a paper shredding company doing making a delivery in a daycare center parking lot, anyway?

Then came the shooting at the Home Depot that I've been to about a zillion times, and then came this note.

None of your children are safe. It's all too true, but it was true even before this spate of random terror started, right in my own backyard. As I've been telling friends, the only reason that this hadn't happened before was simply because it hadn't.

Strange days, indeed. But you can't spend your entire life afraid, hiding in a basement. Especially not a basement with wallpaper like this.