This week, a frequent visitor to the Kirkwood Missouri City Council opened fire in council chambers, killing five participants and wounding the town’s mayor and a reporter. Normally, I would have kept turning the pages of my newspaper, shaking my head at our crazy world. But the story hit close to home for me. My college junior daughter, a journalism student at Mizzou, recently interned for the city newspaper in Columbia, Missouri, where she covered the city beat. She frequently attended council meetings, interviewing the mayor, council members, and citizens coming before the council. She even traveled around town with one candidate, covering the election from his perspective (which for a while caused a stir in her sorority when someone, not knowing her mission, saw her running around town with an older man). When Columbia’s news involved neighboring towns, including the state capital Jefferson City, she followed the story to those locations.
My intrepid reporter was never in danger, but it makes me stop for a moment. As we send these high achieving Lake Highlands grads out into the big, wide, wonderful world, can we ever be sure they will be safe? Granted, they are in more danger on LBJ than at a Missouri city council meeting, but it makes a mom hold her breath and say a prayer.
