American Main Street

It's hard to express how I felt while walking into a grocery store with my 8-year-old granddaughter and noticing that the man in front of us had a gun at his hip. The grocery store! What reason could there possibly be for that, besides, "lookee how powerful I am, and I can do anything I want." I ain't no shrinking violet, but that shook me.

It sure does seem indicative of a sick world to be carrying everywhere. It was seeing a holstered gun at a gay pride rally that freaked me the most the first time, but seeing one in a Denny's in Scottsdale sticks in my mind.

Good Lord, what is this country, now? I have no doubt there will be a big increase in that kind of thing and that, eventually, people will get hurt more often than they do already. Living where I do, I know firsthand the rage that bubbles beneath the surface. I mean, if all it takes is for an old lady to be taking pictures of stuff to set some guys off, imagine...

I've had guns drawn at me four times, but only once for photography. First was a crazy relative, second two were road rage, and then a few years ago a border vigilante near Yuma pointed a rifle at me while I was taking a picture of his 'volunteer' border patrol.