Just a Little More Weird!

To say that the atmosphere in the nation’s capital has been “weird” for the past couple few weeks is an overwhelming understatement. The strangeness, to me, began with the senseless and tragic shooting at the Washington Navy Yard. Out of nowhere, and purely unexpectedly, 13 lives were snuffed out. Then on last week a young lady drove down from Connecticut to try breach the White House barrier, be chased down Pennsylvania Avenue, and have her life ended beneath the ever watchful dome of the Capitol building. And if it could not get any weirder, someone stood in the center of the National Mall on last Friday, poured gasoline all over their body, saluted the Capitol Building (according to the Washington Post), and set himself on fire. Despite efforts by passing joggers, he was burned beyond recognition.

Now when you add 80 plus year old World War II veterans “crashing” through barriers to see the WWII Memorial, tourists climbing over barriers to see sites closed because of the shutdown, and Federal employees protesting or camping out on the Mall because they are on furlough…..DC seems to becoming a very bizarre place.

The common denominator, with the exception of the Navy Yard shooting, seems to be the closing of the Federal government. The government has been shut down since October 1^st, because of the failure from the do-nothing Congress to pass a budget. The excuse is , of course, changes have to be made with Obamacare. It is as if this, supposedly, intelligent body of lawmakers does not realize that the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, and was upheld by the Supreme Court as constitutional. But I digress.

The original focus of this blog was to give some thought on the incident that happened last week when the young lady was chased down Pennsylvania Avenue, after trying to crash the gate of the White House with her car.  It seems that she was stopped at the Capitol, but she gunned her car into reverse, running into a Capitol police car, and giving them chase around the Peace Statue, then into a barrier that protects the Capitol building.

From eyewitness accounts, when her she was stopped at the barrier, a child was retrieved from the car, and “that’s when the shooting began.” The young lady was subsequently killed, but the thing that bothers me, except for using the car as a potential weapon……she was unarmed.  No weapons were found in her car. She never fired a shot at the pursuing officers.

Now I understand completely the argument that the car could have been a bomb, and maybe the officers did not have time to evaluate her intentions. In this age of terrorist attacks, and movies about terrorist attacks,especially against DC, who could blame them. The mental health argument has also been used, and the “fact” that she had post partum depression. (But the child was over a year old…..) Anyway, I can understand why the family would have a lot of questions. I expect to see a lot of legal action as a result of this incident. And, not surprisingly, her sisters have acquired a lawyer.

My intention is also not to be critical of the Secret Service agents or Capitol Police. Yes, I do wish that they did not have to kill this seemingly confused woman. But they do have a mission to protect the White House and the Capitol. And, not unlike me, they are furloughed federal employees, who have to show up to work every day…..and have no idea when they are going to get paid. They are just a small sample of the hardworking people caught up in this government shutdown.

My closing thought is, could the shutdown be making the Washington area a little more dangerous……or just a little more weird?