Being the very naturally compassionate and empathetic person you are Sweetsunshine, its hard not to feel the effects of such terrible events so close to you. Sky and SeptemberMorn are correct here, do not let it consume you. Chanel such feelings instead, maybe one thing would be to volunteer to help with classes on vehicle safety for children and teenagers. Just a suggestion.

As for racism, well I have never understood the concept of hating someone for being born with a certain set of genes, and thats all it really is when you strip away the BS and propaganda surrounding this issue. In the end we cannot change the color of our skin, or our bone structures, all we can do is become the best INDIVIDUALS we can be regardless of our appearance.

After all whether you take a literal interpretaion of the "Good Book", or "Evolution" we are all decendents of the same singular mother. Hence when we strip the artificial and cultural biases from the equation, the very idea of "Race" has no scientific merit whatsoever, we are in essence all the same with less than a 1 percent genetic variance between, whites, blacks, aisans, hindi, etc.. and thats what all this conflict has really been over.

The good news is that the majority of people on all sides are over this and continue to be so, the fact that a person of mixed race is a major party contender for the presidency says a lot. Unfortunatly there will always be a few ignorant neadrathals on all sides that will continue to perpetuate hate for nothing more than the sake of perpetuating hate.

Worry not with such folks, be compassionate and help them to gently understand that their negative attitudes toward someone because they are certain color, gender, preference, religion or ethnic background are completely out of touch and unenlightened, educate them as best you can. Just remember though, only they can change their attitudes from within.

take care and stay sweet!

TJ