Sleepless over Seattle

News of the shootings at the Jewish Federation Building in Seattle horrifies and saddens me. According to early reports, the assailant was a lone gunman who said he was upset about what was "going on in Israel." This is not the first time the hatred that bubbles up between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East has lethally spilled into the United States. Yet it puts another crack in an illusion I want to keep. I want to believe there are some places in the US and elsewhere that are like half-time at brutal (American) football games. These are where the antagonists and their partisans act civilly toward one another; where the rules of engagement are different. Others also want to keep the illusion. The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Seattle has already issued a statement condemning the incident in no uncertain terms. Many Jewish organizations, when they condemn the incident, will also urge their members to be calm and repudiate any calls for revenge by extremists. Nevertheless, the murder and woundings in Seattle shake me. Enough to ask about the security arrangements at my son's Hebrew school.