May a couple weeks ago.
As a reporter, I’ve been hoping police will hold that press conference where they say they arrested the person who did this or at least know why. Yeah, even reporters, dismissed as cynical muckrakers, root for the good guys too.
But as the search and investigation continues, it begins tougher to not read between the lines of what police can’t or will not say. Each day, it seems to become moreclear this act was far more sinister than some random act of violence.
And if there can be a worse feeling than knowing a good man, good husband, soon-to-be father and excellent attorney was taken so violently, it‘s grappling with the thought that some individual out there wanted it that way.
Our society loves our heroes. There’s a reason super-hero flicks dominate the summer-box office. It’s not just the thought of some Hollywood actor in a leather-clad bat suit. We like our heroes brave, fearless and invincible, whether they’re charging up a flight of stairs, facing down a gun-wielding baddie in a street or convincing a jury to put someone behind bars for the rest of their lives.
So there is a sick feeling in my stomach now. It’s not unlike the one I felt seven years ago this same week. I feel vulnerable, I feel scared, like our world’s just a little less safe.
You don’t have to be a comic book junkie to know the hero isn’t supposed to die – that’s Hollywood 101.
But sometimes they do. Sometimes, the people entrusted to protect us do become victims.
It makes you worry about the rest of us. If people like Sean May aren’t safe, the kind of people we look to make sure ours laws are enforced, then what chance do the rest of us have?
That’s why I was heartened by the words of Adams
County District Attorney Don Quick last week when he said
May’s death, intentional or not, would not stop them from doing their jobs. He added if it was an attempt to intimidate them, it already failed.
I hope we’re all just as brave.
