I asked my children at supper last night to tell me what the schools response was to the Bailey Gunman.
They said that the school practiced another lock down (which they do periodically anyway), all teachers and staff now have to wear identifying badges, and they were all encouraged to report anyone who was not wearing a visitor badge.
My oldest daughter told me that the Bailey school had an emergency plan and the teachers had practiced it, but they had not practiced it with the students. I don’t know if that is true or not, but it is what she was told by a teacher.
She also told me that several of the girls who are on the cross country team were really upset because they were good friends with Emily, who was murdered. The girls were crying and upset yesterday at school.
Every time something like this happens, I pause and consider the folly of putting so much of our family life, with pictures, up on the internet. I heard a story last night on the radio discussing the idea that the gunman had targeted the girls, and went looking for them at school.
I decided long ago that I would live fearless.
A story:
During the Clinton Impeachment hearings and just before the Senate was going to vote to confirm the impeachment, I went to a Town Hall Meeting with our Senator Allard. (My testimony begins at 2:30 – two minutes and thirty seconds into the broadcast).
During the question and answer period afterwards I raised my hand and he chose me to speak. I made some very pointed comments about President Clinton, that he and his wife were known felons and they should be in federal prison, that he had stomped all over the constitution during his presidency and that he and hillary should be put in a stockade in front of the white house as a witness that this is what will happen to those politicians who feel they are above the law and do not uphold their constitutional duties and oaths of office.
The crowd went wild as I spoke, applauding and clapping. A woman from NPR with a very long microphone that she had shoved in my face ran up to me afterwards and asked me for my name. Then, she looked me right in the eye, and she said “THANK YOU”.
I didn’t hear it but a friend told me that the NPR story ran the next day, with much of my quote on the radio.
I also appeared on all of the local news stations and was quoted in the Denver Papers.
A few days later I was walking down the hallway at church and an older gentleman, who is a patriot and one of the senior respected members of our congregation stopped me and said, “Jenny, I am afraid that you might end up dead if you talk like that publicly anymore”.
I just thanked him for his concern, and then spent the next few years wondering if I was wise and if I should continue to speak my mind in whatever forum on whatever topic was important to me. This was long before Blogging even became a possibility in my mind.
After thinking about his words and feeling his concern, I just decided that I was going to speak and let the chips fall where they may. If someone killed me or hurt my family for my political activism, so what? I’m not afraid of death. I’m not afraid of one of my children being tortured or killed or kidnapped. I know that this life is but a small moment, and my children have been sealed to me for all time and eternity. I know that eternal justice and punishment waits for anyone who might molest me or my family.
It was about this time I heard another story. A LDS missionary was working somewhere is south america, and he saw a child who was burned from the waist down. He asked the mother if that child had been burned by a cooking accident or some other tragic incident. The mother explained to him that she had been warned that if she went to vote, her child would be burned.
She voted.
Her child was burned.
End of story.
I was thunderstruck by this story. The courage of the mother and the evil that lived in her country. I believe similar evil exists in our country. Sure it is more hidden, but families are being hurt in similar ways. In thinking about this poor girl who was murdered in Bailey, my knee jert reaction to hearing about that type of a crime is “I wonder what antidepressant that guy was taking”.
So, in my outreach on the web, talking about subjects that make some people feel uncomfortable or have murderous rage towards me and my family. Wether it be from my religion, my politics, or my views on any number of issues, I choose to live free and not cave to the terror that is sometimes thrust in the direction of those who are whistleblowers or who speak the truth.
Does this make me stupid? Perhaps, but I am not living for this life. I am attempting to live worthy to spend eternity with my Father in Heaven. If in this life I am punished in some way for being “out there” in the public with my opinions, I am not afraid, and I will not shut up, give up, sit down, or Be still while I have breath in my lungs, and the power to write, yell, and speak my truth.
May Emily rest in peace and may her family find comfort while they Grieve….
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE:
I am not happy to have been right about this one….
“Tragedies like this one in pennsylvania and in colorado last week seem to be inexplicable, but listen to this. more often than not, antidepressants are involved. They found antidepressants in Duane Morrison’s jeep.”