Today’s horrific news, the campus shootings at Northern Illinois University, has struck fairly close to home for me.
Before moving to Columbus, my current residence, I lived in DeKalb for 18 years. I have attended NIU; my former wife was a graduate student in the Geology department. I suspect that I have even been in the lecture hall where the shootings occurred (I have definitely been in a lecture hall with a stage in that building).
I likely know emergency responders who were on-site, and medical personnel at Kishwaukee Hospital’s ER. I know professors, staff, and students at NIU.
I won’t know until names are released if I know any of the dead or injured. Chances are good that I have met one or more of them through my work at Kishwaukee College, the community college located a few miles away from NIU. I am bracing myself for the possibility that someone I knew as an acquaintance, or perhaps even a friend, will be among the dead or injured.
If you have seen the news coverage, you will likely have seen the campus library building. It is just across a small parking lot from Cole Hall, and I know several people who work there. They are understandably very shaken tonight; friends, co-workers and fellow students have died today. Without knowing the motives of the gunman, it is just as easy to visualize this happening in the library.
Why do I bring this up? Simply to say that events like these always happen on a local scale. Most of the time we view it with a wider lens: Columbine, Nickel Mines, Virginia Tech… and now NIU. Where next? And if it happens to be your locality, what should you do to prepare?
I feel the most important thing is to recognize that everything is local to the people who are there. Accept this shared humanity, balance the wide-lens view with the local view, and strive to avoid being afraid. Fear of the negative possibilities serves only to rob us of our ability to live fully and to give our strength to those who need it.
The next most important thing is to review your library’s and/or institution’s disaster policies. Make sure that your plans are general enough to be easily applied in whatever disaster you may experience, but specific enough to allow for clear action. It is tough to find this balance, just as it is tough to balance our view of news stories such as these, but the effort will be worth it.
