This past weekend marked the 19th anniversary of the worst act of domestic terrorism in the United States -- the Oklahoma City bombing of the federal building, killing 168 people, as well as the 15th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in which 13 people were killed.
Both anniversaries were marked on Easter weekend, a time of peace and reflection.
Also observed last week was the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing that left three dead and hundreds wounded. This year's race was completed Monday without incident.
For me personally, the Oklahoma City bombing had the most impact.
When I was the publisher of the newspaper in McPherson, Kan., the husband of our managing editor ran the fertilizer division for the area cooperative, which sold the fertilizer used in the bomb by Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the two convicted bombers. They drove a rental truck to Oklahoma City and blew up the Murrah Federal Building.
It turns out the bombers bought their supplies at the co-op facility about two miles from my house on the west side of town.
As a former resident of Junction City, I knew where the Dreamland Motel was located in Grandview Plaza. The pair stayed there before driving to Oklahoma City. The motel was recently torn down. I had work done on my car at the body shop where they rented the truck used in the bombing.
I shot many pictures at the Geary State Fishing Lake south of Junction City, where they made the bomb. Nichols was a resident of Herington, Kan., which is 30 miles south of Junction City.
All three events were certainly tragic and senseless.
But they are just a few of the many tragedies that have taken place over the years since the Oklahoma City bombing. There have been the two mass shootings at Fort Hood by two different gunmen; the massacre of 20 students and six educators in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012; and in late October of last year, a 12-year-old student opened fire in a Nevada middle school, killing a teacher and injuring two others.
Earlier this month, CNN compiled a list of random elementary, middle and high school violence -- excluding colleges or universities as well as suicides, gang-related incidents or deaths from interpersonal conflicts -- from 1927 to the present. There were 68 incidents during that time period, including 25 since Columbine in 1999. More than half of the 68 incidents occurred since the Oklahoma City bombing.
All this violence kind of hit a little closer to home a week and a half ago when I heard about the shooting of three people in the Overland Park area of Kansas City -- two at the Jewish Community Center and one at a Jewish retirement complex. My wife and I were heading home from Overland Park that weekend.
Two of the three people killed were relatives to Bella Vistan Will Corporon -- his father, Dr. William Lewis Corporon, and his nephew, Reat Underwood. They were killed outside the community center. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
The third victim, Terri LaManno, was killed at the retirement complex, where she was making her weekly visit to see her mother.
The accused gunman is Frazier Glenn Cross, a Vietnam War veteran and founder of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his native North Carolina. After his arrest, he reportedly shouted "Heil Hitler" at television cameras.
The irony of all this is that none of the victims was Jewish.
In addition, there was the arrest last week of a person accused of firing at vehicles driving on the interstate in the southwest portion of Kansas City, Mo. Fortunately, no one was killed but three people were injured.
It just appears to me that the violence, not only in schools but of society in general, appears to have grown in the past 20 years. Does that mean we have too many guns, a need for better mental health care, too much violence in our society, or are we doing something wrong in the way we're raising our kids?
I don't know the answer to any of those questions, but I do think there is a troubling trend here that neither the state nor the federal government is willing to come to grips with. I'm just concerned as things hit closer to home.
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Throne is managing editor of The Weekly Vista.
Editorial on 04/23/2014