Something (more) to think about

Firstly, hello again everyone! I apologize for my absence and hope to post more consistently in the future.

Something scary happened at school today. Today is the day that the ski trip to Stowe, Vermont was supposed to leave, giving us who didn't sign up a four-day, no-homework weekend (except for term paper work). This morning, though, the whole school was called into an assembly instead of the usual Thursday advisor meetings. The principal stood at the podium and told us that she had recieved two anonymous threats claiming to bomb the Stowe trip if it was not cancelled. The first letter, recieved "about a week ago" was studied and discussed, and it was decided that the trip would proceed due to lack of solid evidence of a bomb plot. The second threat changed that and now, she said, the trip would be postponed. She told us that it is likely the sender of the letters was one of us. We also now have armed policemen present on campus "to make sure everybody is safe. If you have any suspicions regarding who sent these threats, tell somebody, a teacher, [the vice principal], me, or one of the policemen."

Needless to say, this caused quite a stir in the community. I feel somewhat like a public school student now, with all the rumors flying over who did what last week, and the policemen looking around everywhere, guns on hips. I hate guns.

It's kind of scary. I'm not sure what to think. I feel that I am safe, but not because of the police presence. I just figure that the threats probably were sent by somebody who either was going on the trip and really didn't want to, or really wanted to go but couldn't. Either way I doubt that the trip would have been bombed. But this incident brings the terrorism issue just a little bit closer to home. Speaking from a purely tactical standpoint, it's a good way to get people to do what you want them to do. Blackmail has been around for eons, after all. That does not excuse it and it does not mean I understand why the threats were made. I'm angry at whoever sent them because they ruined what should have been a great, fun vacation for a hundred kids who never did anything worthy of getting blown up. These are seventh and eighth graders, for crying out loud!

For the record, none of this makes me agree with anybody's policies regarding terrorism. Whoever is nuts enough to do stuff like this needs to be put in counseling, not get shot to death.