As much as I sometimes feel that constant yearly reminders of public tragedies can be hackneyed, I’ve been thinking about the NIU shooting quite a bit over the weekend. It was a tragedy that hit close to home for Illini, and it seems almost everyone knows someone at NIU, and many know those who were in the room with the shooter (myself included).

I have always felt that NIU President, John Peters’ “Forward, together forward,” remark was an amazingly simple, beautiful, and truthful observation about life after tragedy. One year later: Forward, together forward.

Is it possible to top a year like 2008? We’ve encountered everything from scandal to accidental celebrity deaths. History was made in politics with the presidential election as well as in the NFL with the league’s first ever 0-16 team. Although the recession hit hard, the entertainment industry made a few strides with superhero movies like Iron Man and The Dark Knight. Here’s a recap of what 2009 is up against.

Government officials and celebrities showed their true colors throughout the year. The true criminals and scumbags captured the headlines. Before the Rod Blagojevich controversy, there was Eliot Spitzer and his prostitute (she then made a singing debut out of the exposure). Really though, who cares about “Client #9” and Ashley Alexandra Dupré? Apparently Time believes that was the number one scandal of the year and there was no mention of our governor within the top ten.

O.J. Simpson is finally getting the jail sentence many believe he deserved years ago. I guess what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.

The good side of politics came with our new president-elect, Barack Obama. It shows that our nation has finally progressed past racial barriers, and it’s about time.

On a sad note, death was prevalent for the famous in ‘08. The most shocking death of the year came early with Heath Ledger. An accidental drug overdose took the life of an actor that redefined the role of the infamous Joker in The Dark Knight.

Here’s a short list of other celebrities no longer with us: Bettie Page, Isaac Hayes, Bernie Mac, Michael Crichton, Charlton Heston, and George Carlin.

History was made within the National Football League. The Patriots were near perfection at the beginning of the year, but the choked in the only game that mattered. At least we can rely on the Detroit Lions to pick us up and set the bar with an NFL record of zero wins and sixteen losses. We may never again see this feat.

Michael Phelps came in a distant second to Detroit with history-making performances. So he won 8 gold medals against the best of the best swimmers in the Olympics. The suit did all of the work anyway. I’m totally kidding, that was the single most impressive athletic accomplishment of the year. The next best athletic achievements came from Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

The Cubs blew it again…I guess that’s old news though.

Television was entertaining this year. The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and House are still three of the best shows on television. If you haven’t seen Steve Carell’s character Michael Scott on The Office, you’re missing out. Heroes took a fall this past season, but still a decent show if you’re a fan of superpowers and unrealistic twists. No matter how tacky It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (with Danny DeVito) is, I can’t get enough of it. Finally, The Shield ended their reign this past year, and not a minute too soon. I enjoyed the show for a few seasons, but it was time to put that dog to rest.

The most important subject to mention of the entire year is the music. Some bands hit, like TV on the Radio and Coldplay, and one totally missed, Guns n’ Roses. Chinese Democracy started in the mid ‘90’s and should’ve stayed there. Go away Axl, you creepy, creepy looking man…thing. Coldplay is always golden in every aspect of their career. I’m looking to the start of 2009 with Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. A brilliant album I’m still listening to is from The Killers, Day & Age.

There were so many other stories out there, but everything is debatable and some of the stories are too depressing to think about. The one thing that did happen on the LAST day of 2008 was the arrest of Charles Barkley on a DUI suspicion, awesome (apparently a handgun and prostitute are involved, as well). We started 2009 with the Winter Classic between the Red Wings and Blackhawks at Wrigley Field. Nice transition from the old to the New Year. Kudos to you professional sports! Happy New Year, let’s hope for the same excitement this time around.

While I do often use this blog as a soapbox for my political opinions (are they still considered opinions even if they’re one 100% correct?) and sports leanings, I try not to turn The Lowdown into my own whiny, public version of a high school diary.

For example, I hate cats.

A lot.

But you would never know it because I try not to wax rhapsodical about my cat hatred on this blog.

But today, something rather important/bizarre happened to me.

Someone pulled a gun on me…sort of. It wasn’t a real gun, and he didn’t try and shoot me, he just pulled it out and started waving it around and yelling. You can read more about it here, or here, but I can give you the full scoop below.

I’m walking out of Greg Hall shortly before 3:20 and heading north along the quad to retrieve my bike from the rack on the north side of the building. As I’m walking, a white man who looked in his mid twenties (and a lot like a friend of mine, strangely enough) was walking south past Foellinger. He was yelling at himself. Things like “I’ve studied this for eight years! You don’t know what you’re talking about!” At first, I just thought he was pissed about a test or a professor (maybe he was), but then I noticed a large, silver pistol in his right hand (it didn’t have an orange cap or anything to signify it was fake, and glimmered in the light like real metal).

I quickly started to walk away, though no one else in the area (there were not many) seemed too phased by this guy’s rant. He quickly put the gun into a jacket pocket and continued to walk south. I considered not calling the police, as everyone else seemed to not really be concerned about it, but I realized that because of how closely he clutched the gun to his chest, it’s possible that no one else saw.

I dialed up 911, reported what I saw to the operator, and started walking my bike south towards the Undergrad to see if I could give the operator a more detailed description of where he was. From the doors to the Undergrad, I could see that he had continued south of Gregory into the middle of the South Quad between the bell tower and Gregory. He was pacing back and forth, yelling, and eventually flopped on the ground and started kicking the air. He got up, took the gun out, and started walking north, back towards the Undergrad. I started to back away with my bike, and right after he crossed Gregory, the police swarmed in from the north on foot, and in cars along Gregory. The guy seemed unphased by their presence, and refused to go down until the police drew their guns and ordered him down. As he hit the deck, he kept yelling “I! I! I! I! I!”

They put him in cuffs, and I gave this same description to the cops, who later told me that there where medical factors involved in his behavior, and I believe that as of now, he has not been charged with a criminal offense. I must say, I was extremely impressed with how quickly, and with such force the University police responded. From the time I hung up with the 911 operator, until the time he was in cuffs, was probably only about two minutes, possibly less. Six officers, at least one on foot and four in cars arrived in about the time it took him to walk from Gregory, to the middle of the South Quad and back.

That’s pretty damn good. And it makes me feel better to know that the University’s contingency plan worked if there ever was such an incident (or if that gun turned out to be real). For as much shit as I give them for giving parking tickets and ruining Friday nights (I can personally attest), I saw a Uni cop run head long into a situation that he knew to be dangerous without giving it a second thought.

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not those with mental illness, or those taking medication should be allowed to purchase firearms in the wake of NIU and V. Tech. I have my own opinions about guns and gun control, and thank god, the gun he was waving was not real. But, after observing what a true mental breakdown can mean, I can’t imagine how badly things could have ended if that gun could have shot bullets instead of plastic pellets. As a nation, we reserve the rights to remove key liberties and rights if an individual has proven himself incapable or undeserving of using them responsibility (felons not being able to vote, hunters who violate game laws having their guns confiscated as examples). Maybe it’s time we start applying that same logic to those who lack, or may easily find themselves lacking, the ability to control their behavior, and whether or not those people should be allowed to own and operate firearms.

Please leave your opinions on the matter below.

Seriously. Fuck cats.