By Joshua Parrott, Sports Writer

For months, nothing happened.

No anthrax. No terrorist attacks. No pointless killing of helpless Americans.

Then it happened, as calmly as the day turns to night, the innocence of our country was shattered again by the gunshots of two snipers.

As two men, one of them legally a minor, terrorized the country and shook the nation at its core, the Washington D.C. area, usually the battle ground for politicians and agenda, became a war zone. Citizens avoided going outside and recess and soccer games were canceled in fear of an attack. The nation was on guard again.

What makes this so different is that these shootings occurred as people mowed lawns, pumped gas and even walked to their cars. No method, no madness, just death and a trail of mysteries.

These attacks, while scary and random, show us as a country, and on even a smaller scale, us as a community, the great amount of freedom and liberty we have here in the United States of America. Sadly, some across the country were anxious to have something “newsworthy” happen. As a country, we allowed the mourning of Sept. 11 to come and go, and we became a little too relaxed. We forgot that the events of a year ago changed the way we live our lives forever.

We need not live our lives in fear. But we cannot allow for events like the sniper attacks to come and surprise us like they did.

We need be aware that we are under attack as a whole, not just New York or Washington D.C.

Americans are under attack and some of the people we are fighting are those same people we sit next to on the bus, eat with at the restaurants and even shop with at the malls. We have to be sure to not put our guard down and expect that everything is going to always be just perfect.

Like the Lord said we should be prepared for his arrival, so should we be ready for the unexpected-whether we like it or not.