Like many, I have been following the Ft. Hood Massacre. Like everyone, it saddens and hurts me to think of the innocent lives lost. And I can't help but flash back to more innocent days, before the massacre, before September 11th, and before the DC sniper.

I met my husband while he was stationed at Ft. Hood. I was young, 20 when we met, barely 21 when we married. I met him at the Sears garage in Killeen. I loved Texas. I loved Ft. Hood. The hugeness of it overwhelmed me since I'm from a bitty farm town, but the friendliness took me in. Back then, military was family. I'm afraid it's not as much now. Even while we were still in, toward the end our our term, the family feel wasn't there. Maybe it's because the overall family concept is so much less strong than it used to be. Sad.

Now investigators are trying to point fingers at the military for not knowing or acknowledging Hasan's possible Al Quaida/extremist ties.

I'd like to ask them a question: what would have happened if they did suspect him and did track his activities off-base because of that suspician? We all know the answer. They would have been jumped all over for racial profiling. There's a very, very fine line they have to be wary of -- innocent until proven guilty and all, PLUS the bandwagon these days to worry so much about possibly insulting anyone in any way to the extent we don't pay attention to what we should.

That can't happen. It leaves us too vulnerable.

Do we want equality or do we not? If we do, anyone of any race or religious preference MUST be able to be tracked the way any other suspect would be if there is any cause. That's equality. It's not profiling. It's profiling to not track them because of their race or religion just as it's racist to vote for someone only because of his race. It's not equality. So do we want that?

I think we don't.

I don't think we, as a nation, want actual equality. I think we care too much about making sure we have underdogs so we can feel better about fighting for them. Why else would we have set up our system to encourage having underdogs? Welfare only feeds into that. It doesn't pull anyone out. It doesn't encourage them to try to care for themselves. It's self-perpetuating.

So is this bit about "equality" and "profiling" -- it only helps it to continue. If they had tracked him, and others like him with suspicious activities, and stopped him as he should have been stopped, this wouldn't have happened. And we wouldn't have to worry about repercussions against the Muslim community. There shouldn't be repercussions against the innocent. Agreed 100%. And there wouldn't be if we worried less about profiling and more about prevention. How do you tell a population that has been terrorized it shouldn't be worried?

The DC sniper was finally executed. It's about time. I was in Northern VA at the time of the sniper. I was terrified to take my children out anywhere off-base. So was everyone else. I still cringe at white vans.

I was also in Northern VA on September 11th. Then I had to walk around the mall and DC seeing Muslims in full gear and tell myself it was safe. The problem was, and is, that there are still so many terrorists in the States. We all know there are. How do you stop that fear once it's built in?

It's much easier to prevent it in the first place.

So please, Mr. Big Media, let's not jump all over what the military did or didn't know about Hasan. What did you seriously expect them to do with no public criminal activity to act upon? We've tied their hands. Just as we've tied the hands of our police. What do we expect from them with tied hands?

And maybe let's cut the ignorant article about the violent history of Ft. Hood that includes someone completely unrelated to the fort and to the military as "evidence" of its violent history. Compare Ft. Hood and Killeen to any other city of its size and I'll bet anything the history of its violence is awfully low percentage-wise. Compare it to our nation's capital for starters.

How about praising them for how quickly the situation was handled and that the shooter did not escape as they generally do in civilian life? No one does such a thing on a military base with any idea he'll walk away. He knew he wouldn't.

If we can't profile suspected terrorists, we also can't profile those who didn't stop them.

Thank You, Veterans. Keep your heads up high.