It wasn’t the way any of us wanted to start the new year: a lone attacker driving a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street early in the morning New Year’s Day. At least 15 people have died as a result and dozens more are wounded at last count. 

Sadly, this isn’t new to most of us. We’ve seen terror attacks like this happen across the globe in recent years when, for one reason or another, a person decides to use a vehicle as a weapon and plows into a crowd of innocent people at an event or holiday gathering. 

Now the search is on for any accomplices, remnants of the original threat or signs of a follow-up attack or copycat. Additionally, authorities are left trying to figure out if the New Orleans attack was connected to the explosion of a cybertruck parked outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, also on New Year’s Day. 

There’s an all-too-familiar feeling of dread that creeps in after one of these attacks, especially when it’s so close to home, as was the case for us with what happened in New Orleans. And that feeling never really goes away completely, I don’t think. Not too long ago I was passing the time watching a documentary about the Cold War on Neflix and was remarking to a friend about just how interesting I find history and how global events of the past came to be what they were. When the documentary was over, I started a new one made by the same people, but this time it was about 9/11 and I had a much different experience. I wasn’t able to finish it, mostly because of an uneasy, almost panicky feeling that came over me as I watched them recap that day in 2001.

The difference, of course, is that I lived through 9/11. It brought back too much, even for a guy who was nowhere near New York or D.C. when those attacks happened. In much the same way, I haven’t been to a movie once since the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado when I haven’t thought about how vulnerable we are when we congregate in public to watch a film together. It’s a crummy way to have to live, when you really can’t do much in public – including sending your children to school – without feeling anxiety over what might happen. 

And you’ve all heard the advice: Carry on with your normal lives or the terrorists win. Well, I guess there’s some truth to that, but there are some things we can do to safeguard ourselves and our communities against these deranged acts of violence. Most of all, pray. Pray to whatever god you worship that not only can we persevere as a country, and as a global community, through these horrific acts, but that we can somehow overcome them.

Secondly, let’s just look out for one another and not make things worse by turning our anger, frustrations and fears on each other. I know it’s scary when we don’t know where the threat might come from; I know it’s easy to get upset with law enforcement for perceived missteps; and I know we feel like the blame needs to be placed somewhere. But, we won’t achieve anything, or solve any of the underlying issues, if we make the fight an in-house struggle.

I know most of us remember how nice it was after 9/11 when we all seemed to come together as a country. Unless of course, you were a Muslim-American, in which case you probably didn’t find the sudden patriotism quite as comforting. So, my hope this time – my prayer this time – is that we will send thoughts, prayers and support where they are needed, reserve judgement and blame for a time when we know more and band together to show those that threaten our way of life that we won’t make the problem they cause even worse; we’ll pray for resolution and have one another’s backs until this threat has passed. And it will pass.

Blake Bell is the general manager and executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at blake.bell@vicksburgpost.com.