Even in the mountains… No place is exempt from potential terrorism or violence. We like to think that our small mountain town is immune to crime, that we all get along. And for the most part that is true. Reading the police reports in the local Mountain-Ear newspaper, the reports are for the most part trivial and at some times amusing. Reports of excessive dog barking at night. A home owner having a dispute with his neighbor over firewood. Compared to urban criminal activity, it’s fairly small. After all, this is a community in which a majority of residents don’t even lock their doors.
But then Tuesday, that all changed. What started out as a routine day quickly turned into something from an episode of Law & Order. A backpack, something that looked to be innocently left by a hiker passing through, quickly became something else. Here in our small mountain town that most Coloradans have never even heard of, terrorism reared its ugly head.
It’s strange to see the pictures, to hear the recounting of bomb squads from federal agencies being brought in. To see news trucks, police vehicles, parked everywhere. The whole B and F shopping center evacuated, empty for more than twenty-four hours. I consider that shopping center the hub of Nederland, where I run into friends and neighbors. For one whole day, it was devoid of life. People unable to go to work, unable to run their business, people living in town afraid of what might happen.
Finally in the middle of the night, after a series of sirens, the bomb was safely detonated. By the following afternoon, a stop at the shopping center seemed like business as usual. You would never have dreamed that something so scary, something so big city-like had struck this small mountain town.
I like to think of our home and this town as my refuge, my safe haven of peace, quiet and nature to escape the craziness of the cities below. But this incident reminded me that in 2016, even small mountain towns in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado are not immune to acts of terrorism. Yes, amidst my woods, dirt back roads, and whistle of the wind, we too can be reminded of the world we live in.
