Awareness and alertness in today’s troubled world can and do pay dividends to society. Once again a major tragedy has been averted because somebody, in this case parents, acted as good citizens rather than as a coddling mother and father.

An 18-year-old South Carolina male with obvious problems had ordered explosive material to go along with a longtime plot he had been hatching, in meticulous fashion, to blow up parts of his high school and anyone who had the misfortune to be there. Police found a journal commending Colorado’s Columbine High School killers and a tape to be played after the young man had died in his suicidal plot.

Ryan Schallenberger, described as a straight-A pupil, had slammed his head into a wall recently and his parents called a clinic to get help. They got none. Fortunately, the parents were monitoring the boy enough to be suspicious when they learned he had ordered 10 pounds of explosive ammonium nitrate.

They told police who then investigated and probably prevented another atrocity like that at Columbine. Somebody was aware, took action and good things happened as far as potential victims were concerned. How many times in the past has refusal to recognize and accept the concept of danger caused tragedy, as in the case of the unbalanced young man who killed 32 in a Virginia Tech University rampage?

There are no fail-safe approaches to such issues. But when good citizens see danger and get to the bottom of it, major gains are made. Take the youngster who recently had a gun on the grounds of a local junior high school. There was a concerned informant who told about the case. We can only guess what might have happened if the observance weren’t passed on.

Sadly, one of the aspects of good citizenship anymore is the need for alertness about people who are inclined to do us harm as in the case of the South Carolina suspect.

Every little bit can help.