I have not written a diary here in over a year, maybe two, not since the onset of the Great Recession. In truth the recession has taken a great toll on me and my family from which we are only now beginning to recover.
I have simply not had the inclination to diary here in all this time as I have been pre-occupied by a life devastated and a family torn apart by recession. But in light of recent events, I feel it's not just appropriate, but somehow in a strange sort of way almost my duty to report from the beloved community where I live to the beloved online community where I daily interact with politically kindred spirits.
First let me tell you a little about Aurora below the orange squiggle.
Aurora is considered a Denver suburb, but as an Aurorian I've always thought of us as our own distinct entity. Aurora is the third largest city in Colorado (behind Denver obviously and Colorado Springs).
I've lived and worked in the Denver metro area for some 18 years now, finally settling into Aurora in 2005. I'm a middle class office worker, a software engineer. Most of my peers live in what I call the whitebread suburbs; Littleton, Highlands Ranch, or Centennial. These communities all encircle an area called the Denver Tech center where most IT professionals in the region are employed. It's sort of our own little slice of Silicon Valley, remoted by 1200 miles of course.
When looking for a permanent residence, we chose to settle in Aurora rather than the whitebread areas. Aurora is just a few minutes further east and a resonable commute, but the south side of Aurora is part of the Cherry Creek School District which is far and away the best in the state and I'm told one of the best in the nation. Because of our location further east housing is less expensive here and unlike the whitebread areas, we have a greater ethnic diversity. Aurora is home to large populations of eastern Europeans, middle-easterners, asians, hispanics, and blacks as well as whites. We seem to live pretty harmoniously here without most of the racial tensions one sees in areas like LA or the deep south.
Being married to an hispanic, I felt that Aurora would be a comfortable location both for her and our daughter who is fully bi-lingual and has at her tender age of 9 already lived in two Spanish speaking countries and two US states. We've always loved Aurora and felt at home here. It has something to offer all of us.
Aurora is a big enough town that it's unlikely I personally know any of the 50 shooting victims. But it's still small enough that I feel personally attacked even though I was not there.
I don't know what kind of long term effect this will have on our community, but I'm already seeing the petty recriminations of the gun rights crowd and their idiotic ramblings about if there were only more guns someone would have stood up and shot this shooter. They want to make it like Florida or Texas, no thanks!