Mary and other DC area residents…
So, what is life like there in and around the capitol? I'm sure we've all seen the recent news about the shootings in the area. How has this effected your school?
Take care,
Jeff
Jeff, this is the “other Mary”…I’m not in DC.
My family and I had planned a long weekend of camping in DC. There’s actually a family campground within the beltway with access to the M. The museums on the Mall are terrific and free…
Because of hurricanes and rainstorms, we’ve already postponed our plans twice. We tried to get into Crystal City Marriott near DC, OPMs 2003 convention site, for this coming weekend, but they’re already full! Now, we’re looking to going in November. But…
…even though I’ve got certificates for 2 free nights in ANY Marriott I want, my husband and I are more and more reluctant to bring ourselves and our children to the area. Neither of us wants to take the (slim) chance with what’s most precious to us.
This must be difficult for everyone living within a couple hours radius of any of the shootings. Everyone’s looking for that white truck!
My condolences to all that have been stressed by this. Mary? Vera? How’s it going? Take care!
Hi Folks,
The sniper has taken lives from Spotsylvania to Rockville and in between. There is nothing to prevent this person from moving from the DC area to Pennsylvania, to West Virginia. So far there have been nine people killed. More people than that were killed overnight in automobile accidents yet I am sure that most folks got up and drove into work. Almost three thousand people were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, yet we go about out daily duties.
In short, we cannot allow one or possible two people to totally take away our lives with terrorism. If we do, we lose. I am going to DC on Saturday. I will be pumping gas and visiting friends with the other 1 million + people in the Washington DC area. My future in-laws live less than 200 feet from Seven Corners where the latest victim was shot. I will be shopping at Seven Corners. If I get shot, I get shot living my live the way I choose to live it. The police will catch this person at some point. Until then, he or she will not affect my life.
Natalie
Hi Jeff and Mary,
I happen to live less than a 1/2 mile from the site of several of the shootings that took place in Maryland. I can tell you that people are terrified. The Shopper's Food Warehouse where one of the first victims was killed is the grocery store that my husband and I shop at each week. It was extremely difficult to go into the store and pass by the memorial that had been set up in the area where that person was killed. When I went to the grocery store on Sunday, I actually saw a woman running into the grocery store. I was walking rather quickly myself.
My husband and I also pass by two of the gas stations on our way to church. These are the gas stations where the man from India and the woman vacuuming out her car were shot. When I saw the memorial set up by the vacuum cleaner at the gas station, I almost cried.
It is so unfortunate that some extremely sick person has us walking around in fear. We just have to hold out hope that this person (or people) will be caught soon!
Astoria
My sister and her family live in the DC suburbs in northern VA near where the shootings have taken place - and my nephews school is within a mile of one of them. I am very nervous for their sake but they seem to be carrying on their lives as usual.
LM
The danger to anyone specific individual is slight, of course, and other activities do have a greater statistical risk (i.e. driving). For us, the shootings are a small, but significant consideration in not going to DC…finances and applications being the “biggies” right now.
While I do my best to live my life as usual, my family and I are not usually in the DC/VA area, so this trip is ‘unusual’ in that respect. Of course he/they might show up anywhere, even several states away from where these shootings have occurred, but I doubt that will happen…given the vehicle. He/they will eventually be caught and tried, or shot by police.
Meanwhile, I’m attending to my ‘biggies’…take care!
Thank you for thinking of us Jeff.
This person is indeed a terrorist - he has succeeded in instilling irrational fright into a great many of us. As much as I would like to be defiantly able to go about my business without thinking about what might happen, it is getting harder and harder. Yes, I am afraid. My gas gauge currently reads 3/4 and I pray that they catch him before I need gas! I do my shopping but I am looking around as I go in and out of stores. I hate this. I am sad and angry about it.
Most of all I am afraid for my daughter. It is absolutely true that she runs a far greater risk every day, driving with her friends. Unfortunately right now I can’t get my rational self to override the terrorized mom inside.
this is me right now —> 
Hi Folks,
I was sitting in front of the telly yesterday morning before I started my A.M. study session hoping that the Henrico Police Department had the DC Sniper but to no avail. They had arrested a couple of illegal alien guys who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It has been so unfortunate that this one or possible two individuals have totally disrupted the economy and day-to-day living of so many people. Bin Laden couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome than what has been accomplished in Maryland, DC and Virginia. Thousands of school children have been kept at home and millions of dollars in commerce are being lost.
It has been so disheatening that: 1. More people are being killed and more families are suffering loss 2. So many people are being displaced and disrupted because of this sick person 3. The news media are in a total frenzy over this incident and we might be going to war at any time.
I am hoping that something is going to break in this case soon. Until then, I alter nothing about my life but keep on living. The folks in Bosnia lived like this from day to day for years. We have been getting a small taste over the past couple of weeks. It is too sad. 
Nat