My second post:

Unfortunately and coincidentally, I've started this blog under similar circumstances to when I started my fist blog some 3+ years ago.

At that time the Virginia Tech shooting had just occurred. As I start this blog, the Arizona Safeway shooting has just happened, resulting in the deaths of six people. Eight others, including Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, remain hospitalized at this time.

In a tragic instance of the "six degrees of separation" phenomenon, Rep. Giffords is related to a number of prominent individuals.  Her husband is United States Navy Captain and NASA astronaut Mark Kelly.  Her brother in law and Capt. Kelly's twin brother is Scott Kelly, also a USN Captain and NASA astronaut.

Representative Giffords is also the first cousin of director Bruce Paltrow. His daughter is actress Gwenith Paltrow.

Although Representative Giffors is the most high profile of the victims, there are a couple of others who I would like to mention here.  The first is Christina Green. She was nine years old, having been born on September 11, 2001. Although I have to admit not knowing who she is, her cousin is Sophia Bush, an actress on the TV show "One Tree Hill".

The other is Dorwan Stoddard. In what I would consider a selfless act of love and courage, Mr. Stoddard shielded his wife Mavy from gunshots.  He gave his life saving hers.

According to an article published in the LA Times, "Dorwan and Mavy Stoddard had known each other as children in the Tucson area. They moved away, married other people and had children. After both were widowed, they reunited in their hometown and married nearly 15 years ago. Dorwan, 76, (was) a retired construction worker and gas station owner...". Sounds to me like it could have been a "happily ever after" love story to me.

In my first blog, when I wrote about the V-Tech. incident, I tried to make sense of it, offered some martial arts and self defense training tips for such occurrences (I think I failed miserably on both counts) and "ranted" a bit about the state of the current mental health system and the general ignorance of people's perception of mental health issues.

I don't think I'll do anything like that this time.  Although I do have my opinions, I don't think that a) I can adequately describe them here and b) I'm not sure voicing them would really make any difference in the whole scheme of things.

This time I think I'll simply be satisfied with offering my thoughts and prayers to those affected by the shooting.