Chattanooga

cbmeeks

I'm sure you all have heard the news about a shooter in Chattanooga.
The company I work for is literally on the same road (maybe 1-2 miles) and they have/had everyone on lockdown...including us.
We just don't expect to see that kind of violence in our city.

Heater.

Oh boy. Sadly there is no place safe from this scourge. Hope all is well for you and yours.  

cbmeeks

Thanks.  Yeah, we're all good.  My wife works nearby too and they were (if I'm not mistaken) also on lockdown.
Plus, my son's school (he's 11) is very close to me (and the shootings) so they obviously locked down as well. Just as a precaution.
I'm sure the kids there are a little rattled.  But then again, they may not have told them anything other than "go inside".
You know, I wake up every day and wonder what I'm going to work on.  Java, circuits, Propellers, etc.  I cannot imagine what motivates these individuals to have that much hate in their minds.  At 42 years old, I have learned to let things slide.

erco

What a sick world it can be. Glad you're OK.
It's surreal when it happens somewhere near or familiar to you. Charleston SC is my hometown, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately, the church shooter and the Cessna/F16 collision. Virginia Tech is my alma mater, where there was a mass shooting in 2007. Professor/roboticist Dennis Hong of Romela was in the building with the shooter, locked in his office and hunkered down. He posted online updates, not knowing if the shooter was heading his way.
I'm not a gun fan, but they are so widely available so that genie's out of the bottle. Don't know what the solution is. Scary.

frank freedman

Hope I never see such a ting up close and personal. But there may be higher odds than in the past because the political and social environments have become so absolutely poisoned beyond belief. And common ground seems to have gone the way of Atlantis.
Because of a special needs kid in the house, ownership is not an option and in any event, I am ambivalent regarding having one. Other than protecting family, I doubt there is anything I am likely to have in life worth going to such a permanent and irreversible extent. Wish we could all just dial it back a few degrees..........

cbmeeks

Thanks guys for the kind words.
As for Charleston, that is a GREAT city.  I love it there.  I've been there a few times for training and I could easily live there.
The oysters alone is enough to make me move.  :-)

rjo__

It is important to remember that the motivators of these actions are trying to stir up a real war by causing us to fight with each other.  We sometimes forget that the only reason we have a country is our military.  And every member of that military must now be much more careful than us.  We can't thank them enough.
It is hard to imagine the deprivation that this is causing in the Muslim world.  For every American or European who is killed there are countless Muslim children living in fear.  Afraid to go to school... afraid to leave their homes and afraid to go to their Mosque.  There is an entire generation of Muslims who have no education at all.  They only learned to read because they were lucky enough to be able to go to a Mosque... They could't go to school because they would be killed or kidnapped for ransom.  Many of them are fluent in several languages but can't calculate or spell and actually know very little except what they have been told or have seen on television.  We need to win this... not just for us... but for then entire planet.  I rented a room in Europe for a while from an Afghan refugee...neither he nor anyone he associated with liked Western culture, but they didn't like their own culture either:)  They were just stuck.  
I heard in several reports that the FBI was having a problem with encryption...  I don't believe it:)  And if it is true, the FBI needs to get out and look around a little.

Heater.

It's important to remember that billions of people are living in very poor circumstances. We sell arms to to the war lords and despots that lord it over them, so that we can maintain our comfortable life styles. 
I'm amazed they haven't walked over here by the millions already and strangled us all personally by hand.
I guess what I am saying is that here are no "good guys" in this current global situation. 
Meanwhile, in the "civilized" western world we happily tolerate massive and ever growing inequality in our own societies, capitalism and consumerism is king over "community". 
Outlook, not good.
And no I don't defend shooting of random innocent  people for whatever cause. But the pressure is obviously growing and saying it all "their" fault is a bit naive. 

Publison

Sorry guy and gals, This one is going on the sink list. It is not the place to debate these issues, on this technical forum.