Everyone is on edge.

And it’s no wonder given the events of the last week.

It’s hard not to see the images of the Boston Marathon bombing every time you close your eyes.

And there’s no getting around it if you blog, tweet, search the Internet, watch television or listen to the radio. After all, it’s only been a week.

I have to admit to keeping my eye on an individual who seemed to look out of place at an event I was at this past weekend.

But now is not the time for us to pass judgment, or begin to generalize about people based on their race, nationality, or looks.

What we need now is be ever vigilant.

As the authorities have told us, we need to be on the watch for anything that seems to be out of place, be it a package, a suitcase or a backpack.

We need to report those things to law enforcement. They want to know.

It may mean that we are inconvenienced for a while for something that turns out to be nothing.

It happened last week at the Bremerton shipyards. And it happened again this week near the Bremerton ferry terminal.

In both those cases, it turned out to be nothing harmful. But it could have been and we’d all agree, better safe than sorry.

As good citizens, we need to be careful about leaving anything unattended so as to not start a false-alarm incident.

We need to remember that everyone is just a bit hyper-sensitive to anything that may tend to look suspicious.

But we can’t allow recent incidents to stop us from being polite to each other.

It shouldn’t make us overly suspicious or even hateful of strangers.

Keep your eyes open. Pay attention. Support law enforcement.

And remember that we are all in this together.

We need each other.