I am guilty. Guilty of complacence and denial in regards to my surroundings. I live at the Jersey Shore. On Saturday morning just after 9a.m., a pipe bomb intended to hurt many people exploded prematurely in Seaside Park, NJ. Though no one was hurt, this act has completely changed my perception of personal safety forever. If you talked to me about terrorist acts in my community on Friday, I would have told you it would never happen. Today, I couldn't be more mistaken.
Since 9/11, most people including myself have become more aware of the threat of terrorism. We read about it every day. We are all reminded to pay attention to our surroundings, and report anything strange. We all take this to heart, and I'm sure we all do our best to abide. The problem I'm dealing with, is that I never expected it to happen in a quiet community based around family fun and games. I always felt that cities were targets, not small towns. Again, that's all different now, it can happen anywhere.
Seaside Park is located in Ocean County, New Jersey, and has been a hot spot for tourists for generations. I grew up running the boardwalks there in summer. Many New Jerseyans share these same memories. The town was also the location for the famous MTV show "Jersey Shore", though many locals would rather keep that claim to fame under their hats. This community is one of the last places you would expect to have a bombing of this nature.
I live thirty miles north of there, and while thirty miles seems like a good distance, in local Jersey Shore terms, it's really not. This area of the shore has a long string of beach towns that stretch almost fifty miles, and each community is somehow connected to each other in many ways. I have worked in Seaside Park in the past few years, and have stood on the very spot where this explosion happened. The thought of this chills me to the bone.
So what do I do from here? Obviously, I'm not going to shut myself in and cower in the corner, however, I will be more vigilant in the awareness of my immediate surroundings, as I should have been all along. As an American, I will stay diligent in the my role as a part of the community in which I live, and I will not assume that we are safe in this ever-changing world. This is all I can do for now.
As a final note, I share this about myself in the hope that many others with the same mentality regarding our safety become aware of their immediate surroundings as well. I fear many people are as guilty as I am. If anyone thinks this can't happen to them, or in their own community, they are sadly mistaken. These heinous events can happen anywhere, and to anyone. Unfortunately, we live in a world where respect for humanity is at an all time low, and Morality and Virtue are casually put aside. All we can do is stand strong, and pay attention; maybe in the future, terrorists will have less opportunity to terrify.
