G-8ish

This weekend, very close to my hometown of Thurmont, the G-8 Summit is taking place. It's kind of exciting. I love it when big things come and put Thurmont on the map. It hasn't happened since 1978 when President Jimmy Carter held some sort of summit at Camp David. I remember as a young child, meeting a young Barbara Walters. Didn't know her from Adam, but I can now watch her on The View and say I met her once.

G-8 brings out a lot of protestors...even more will be in Chicago starting tomorrow. That worried me a bit for Thurmont's safety. I mean, my parents and sister still live there. I didn't like the idea of things getting out of hand with them in the vicinity. Everything has passed without incident, and for that I am grateful to the many law enforcement officials who had a part in keeping the peace. It still disturbed me to see images like the following happening in my hometown square.

Guns in the square. True, loaded with bean bags, but still guns.

Hard to imagine this is the tiny town I grew up in.

This was the most unsettling of the images for me.

It's over now. Let Chicago deal with it! The only thing I'm still mad about is that Anderson Cooper didn't come to cover it. Now that...I could've gotten behind!