"Keep Calm and Carry On"

Yesterday I almost witnessed a police shooting.

I was walking to work with one of my neighbors for a few blocks and I had picked up my breakfast from Starbucks. Outside the Starbucks on First Ave, I thought I had heard gunshots. Cities are load with traffic and trucks and dumpsters. "Bang Bang Bang" could be anything.

I walked another block and I saw a garbage truck pick up a dumpster. The crashing noise of metal on metal sounded about the same. 

In another block, I saw the police cars and up the hill I saw six cops clustered together. I asked a group of people standing on the corner.

"The police shot a guy they thought had a gun," one of the men said. "The guy said he had a gun." Later, I read the man who was shot was sought in a stabbing a few blocks away.

I nodded, and kept walking to work. As I continued to my office, I saw dozens of police cars, a firetruck and ambulances drive to the scene. I kept walking. 

Yesterday was the first official day people were required back in the office. People were already afraid of coming into big, bad downtown, so I didn't tell anyone what I saw. I just went to work.

My biggest surprise was how acclimated I have become to the craziness. I felt like I was living in London during the Blitz. Government officials had thought that English subjects would cower in fear as the Germans bombed the city.

Nope, a majority of the people carried on with their lives. When the air sirens wailed, people tucked into their safe spaces. When the all clear came, people went back to cooking dinner or reading a book.

After I passed the chaos, I thought to myself "Keep Calm and Carry On." Granted, I was not at all directly involved in the shooting, nor was I stabbed by the guy. Clearly, I'd be way more distraught if I had been a direct witness or running for my life. 

Nevertheless, I wonder: was "Keep Calm and Carry On" an order from the monarch, or was it a description of what people did?

And to let you all know -- my biggest fear of walking downtown is still getting hit by a car making a turn while I am crossing the street. I am more worried about that than getting shot by the police or getting assaulted by a cracked out vagrant.