Even the Losers ~ Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
I was up all night Sunday watching coverage of the strip massacre. I didn't fall asleep till six. My dad called around seven to make sure I was okay, after the call I fell asleep for a few hours. When I woke I grabbed the phone and started checking on the tragedy again. I could only take so much, so I started checking other news and I read Tom Petty had passed. What was already a tough morning got worse:
"You know I was scheduled to work security at Mandalay Bay Sunday, but my boss screwed up on the schedule so I didn't know. If I would have went I would have been arriving and walking into Mandalay Bay about the time the shooting started. I was suppose to be there and at my post by ten thirty." James, who works security at a number of venues around town, was explaining to me the situation he could have easily found himself in if not for his bosses clerical error - "Thank goodness your boss screwed up on the schedule. It sounds like you would have walked right into it if not for his mistake," I say as both of us realize how fortunate he was.
"Before I moved to Vegas I was going to PA school and worked as a paramedic. I remember vividly all the training that went into a mass casualty event. I missed a few that happened in North Carolina, but I know they are gruesome." - "James," I then take another sip of my drink before continuing - "Just think if you rolled through there when it was happening." He takes another swallow of his drink and says - "I don't know what I would have done. I most likely would have tried to help and would that have put me in the cross hairs? Thank goodness I will never know."
We change the subject to football for a minute but it drifts back to the massacre - "You know what the most indelible scene for me of this whole tragedy is? It's the windows that were blown out of the shooter's room on the 32nd floor. That is an image that will never get out of my head. It was unbelievable to me that someone could do that. Just raining bullets down on all those people. Man, I think Mad Max might be right about things."
"Don't listen to that dip shit!" He says with a hint of anger, "It sounds like it was a crazy guy with lots of guns. Everything is pointing to a 'lone wolf." We pour another drink and then I ask what he thinks things will be like now - "Vigilance!" He says in a matter of fact tone - "Everywhere you turn it will be a guard with a gun or a metal detector to pass through. This country will start to mimic Israel and all of their security procedures. Hopefully, it will be enough to slow it down. Nothing will ever stop it for good."
"You know I was scheduled to work security at Mandalay Bay Sunday, but my boss screwed up on the schedule so I didn't know. If I would have went I would have been arriving and walking into Mandalay Bay about the time the shooting started. I was suppose to be there and at my post by ten thirty." James, who works security at a number of venues around town, was explaining to me the situation he could have easily found himself in if not for his bosses clerical error - "Thank goodness your boss screwed up on the schedule. It sounds like you would have walked right into it if not for his mistake," I say as both of us realize how fortunate he was.
"Before I moved to Vegas I was going to PA school and worked as a paramedic. I remember vividly all the training that went into a mass casualty event. I missed a few that happened in North Carolina, but I know they are gruesome." - "James," I then take another sip of my drink before continuing - "Just think if you rolled through there when it was happening." He takes another swallow of his drink and says - "I don't know what I would have done. I most likely would have tried to help and would that have put me in the cross hairs? Thank goodness I will never know."
We change the subject to football for a minute but it drifts back to the massacre - "You know what the most indelible scene for me of this whole tragedy is? It's the windows that were blown out of the shooter's room on the 32nd floor. That is an image that will never get out of my head. It was unbelievable to me that someone could do that. Just raining bullets down on all those people. Man, I think Mad Max might be right about things."
"Don't listen to that dip shit!" He says with a hint of anger, "It sounds like it was a crazy guy with lots of guns. Everything is pointing to a 'lone wolf." We pour another drink and then I ask what he thinks things will be like now - "Vigilance!" He says in a matter of fact tone - "Everywhere you turn it will be a guard with a gun or a metal detector to pass through. This country will start to mimic Israel and all of their security procedures. Hopefully, it will be enough to slow it down. Nothing will ever stop it for good."
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