The Good News and the Bad News...

The good news, of course, is the general relief that the country is feeling regarding the capture of two men in the Washington, DC sniper case, which at this point is old news, but I didn't get a chance to add my rejoicing to the pot last evening when the news broke. The details have been at times chilling and harrowing, but at the same time, as with most serial killings, it is the story of two apparent osers who thought they were playing God. Granted, they're innocent until proven guilty, but the evidence seems particularly strong, especially with the recovery of a weapon linked through ballistics to the killings. The sad thing, of course, is that while people may venture out of their homes now, their safety really is an illusion. We're never really safe, after all. We just have to live life like we are, because if we refuse to go out because of fear of people like the snipers, then we allow a small possibility of becoming a victim to run our lives. It's funny; I've always been fascinated with how the criminal mind works, and of piecing the clues together. As a mystery buff and potential writer, it's always been a natural obsession. As I've gotten older, though, I find I care less for the work of the criminals and more for the results of their crimes--their victims, whose names get shuffled away while the criminals go down in the record books, the families left behind, the pain. If I ever do write fictional murders, I hope I can convey that part, too. It's cases like this that have you wonder "what if's". We could all put ourselves in the position of someone pumping gas, or walking out of a store, after all, people just going through their normal lives. Everything changes in an instant, but that pain of losing a loved one never goes away. My sympathies go out to the families of the victims.

Also, the Russians have liberated the theatre where several hundred hostages had been taken by Chechen militants. While I understand the desire to have an independent homeland, I do not understand taking innocent lives in an effort to gain it. It's unclear at this time how many of the hostages were killed by the militants and in the final push, but it sounds like the Russian forces had no real choice--people were being killed and the hostages were trying to escape. An ultimatum had been made that the hostages would be killed soon.

So much violence. Okay, maybe it's not so much good news, as relieved news.

The Bad News? Distinguished actor Richard Harris is dead. I've admired him for years, having first seen him in A Man Called Horse. He and Peter O'Toole were a decent pair of Irish rogues. And of course lately, he's played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies. Sad to think he won't be able to complete them. He's also one of the only "classic" actors I really ever remember being blonde--the old stereotype for leading men being dark and handsome, with leading ladies usually being blonde.

Also I'm concerned that one of the most liberal Democrats in the US Senate was killed in a plane crash today (along with his wife and daughter), just 11 days before the elections. According to what I read earlier, Sen. Wellstone was the only Democrat up for re-election who voted against the recent resolution to use force against Iraq. He was a professor who taught students about Grass Roots politics. He served despite having multiple sclerosis and was a proponent of health care reform, veterans' rights, and environmental concerns. Essentially it sounds like he stood for a lot of the same things I did, and I'd hate for the balance between the parties within the Senate to tip due to this terrible tragedy.

I guess I'm just on a gloom-and-doom kick. I'll try to keep things on an up beat next post. :)