It's Valentines Day Again...............

Well Valentines Day is here once again but unlike years gone by I won't be rushing out to Walmart or some other such store desperately trying to find some flowers or a card. I've done that in the past and had to fight my past other poor saps to get the last slightly wilted bouquet of roses before making my way down the card strewn aisle to select from everybody else's leavings. The fact is I have learned a thing or two about my wife since getting married. The thing is she tends to change her mind from year to year so if I try and surprise her with something then chances are I'll get it wrong.

So instead I prepare by getting her nothing. Now before you start muttering how much of a jerk I am for not getting her something on this most holy of days that is not what I said. I said I prepare by not getting anything, not that I won't be getting her anything. In order to make sure that wife gets exactly what she wants I'll be giving her a card then taking her to lunch and after that wherever she wants to get whatever she wants. If she wants a plant this year then we'll go get the plant that she wants not the one I think she wants. If she wants flowers then we'll find the ones she wants not the ones I think she would like.

This way she gets precisely what will make her happy and I don't get in her doghouse. If you think that this isn't very romantic or some such drivel the you probably haven't been married very long. By getting what she wants she'll be happy and as a by product so will I. And that's a good thing in my book.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Shootout In Old Tulsa Town, The World Just Got A Little Crazier

There was a shootout in Tulsa two days ago on a Tuesday afternoon at a Walmart Neighborhood Market. Apparently two men forced a man at gunpoint to take them to his Tulsa home. While there a police car pulled up and they made the hostage return to his vehicle and then they drove to the Walmart store located at 21st and Yale. This is a store that I frequent sometimes at night after I get off of work. At least one of the men took the hostage inside the store and fired multiple shots. It seems that the other man left at some point, possibly when police officers began to arrive on the scene. The gunman came outside and attempted to steal a car but ended up shooting and killing a foreign exchange student from China while his passenger got out and ran away.

Next he tried to take a truck from a man who told him he could have it if only he would let him get his baby, girlfriend and her brother out of the vehicle. In this case he allowed them all to exit the truck before getting in. Right away he started shooting at police officers and they returned his fire. The truck crashed only a short distance away and the officers found the man dead inside the truck. The whereabouts of the second man is unknown at this time.

A comment I heard after all of this happened was from a person that lived in that area who had said that they always thought that it was a safe neighborhood and now they weren't so sure. Too many people live under the illusion of safety in this country. Just because the place they live has houses that are a bit more expensive they think it's less likely to have poorer, lower class people and thus less crime. People like to think this way instead of facing reality. There is no such thing as real safety. All it takes is one time for a person to decide to break the law or lose control of themselves and lives can be lost in moments.

Criminals who plan ahead look for places where they can get away with their crimes quickly and easily, but for those who are on drugs or have lost their grip on sanity there are only sudden, unplanned decisions that can spin out of control rapidly. In these cases a simple choice of turning left instead of right can impact whether you live or die and there is no way in cases like this that you can guarantee safety. Nor can you legislate it either. More laws guarantee nothing. If somebody wants to get a gun and use it then they will find a way to do just that no matter how many laws there are to prevent it from happening.

We live in a time of instant access to information amongst other things and it seems like people are losing patience and the ability to comprehend completely. They want it all now, with no waiting no matter what laws or regulations there are. Indeed they believe that the rules don't apply to them at all. Don't believe me? Just watch an episode of Parking Wars and you will see the unbelievable vitriol verbally hurled towards the parking enforcement officers in Philadelphia.

People know they are in violation but don't care and they sound off in the most idiotic fashion. It's an unfortunate sign of the times and will only bet worse. Violence is escaping from it's confines on an increasingly larger scale and the most we can hope to do is educate ourselves about it and pray that we can escape it when it happens. Ultimately people are becoming more and more selfish and they plain do not care if others get hurt by their actions. Safety is a faded ideal. Reality is our present and future and I don't see it getting any better.

Published by Don Leach