Another introduction to the New Normal.
On Wednesday I attended my youngest granddaughter's graduation from high school. It was at an outdoor venue with thousands attending. It was a gorgeous day. At the start, before the actual beginning of the ceremonies, one of the officials came up to the microphone and announced that in case of a catastrophic event to please make our way to your nearest exit and proceeded to give further instructions. Many of us looked at each other and realized what he was referring to and the reality of our world at least momentarily cast a bit of pall over the crowd of parents and relatives holding balloons and flowers and you could see on the faces, oh, holy hell.
= new reply since forum marked as read
are necessary for a number of reasons wherever large groups gather. First aid, avoiding dangerous crowd movements, heat warnings becoming more and more frequent, and of course locations of exits. Used to be large crowds weren't so large or so frequent as they are now. There are sad recent developments, but they'd be necessary actions to meet responsibilities to their communities anyway.
Personally, I really regret the smaller graduations at the kids' own schools, with their community of fellow students, staff and families they've known and who've known them for years. But there also safety announcements are needed.
Congrats to your grad. 
fires, people, etc, so probably that's a reason. That was the era of serial killers in our city. We didn't just start looking for exits in THIS century, but it was part of being sensible, not about inflating real dangers beyond all rationality and running scared.
I knew where the exits were in our big mall because...earthquake, fire, and yes, dangerous people who could run out one with a child or follow me into a bathroom. Gang fights were rare in ours but possible. Nothing's changed in that respect.
Now, one of the old dangers has become less incredibly unlikely. Yeah, it's sad, but our job is to put an end to it. Reevaluation is in order, but with a cool look realizing personal danger's still extremely unlikely, a way of clearing the mental decks.
Because the REAL, NEW danger we did not have before is that FEAR, outsized, irrational fear, may cause society to make very dangerous, horrible decisions. To vote for fake safety over freedom. That's exactly what these people want.
Cool evaluation time. But for a touch of bravery if necessary, and surely for being pissed off too?
I was having a day yesterday probably why I posted that, garage door spring broke and we can't even open manually till they come to fix. Luckily hubby had taken my car out so its in driveway. He was having a meltdown and it affected me.
I feel the same way I use to be sweet and now I feel a bit hardened.
My dad was my best friend and it threw me when I lost him, that was in 2000. Took me years but now I have fond happy memories instead of gut wrenching sadness.
