"It is a local joke. There are worse comments that the one I made said daily. "
Yes, there are, and none are funny. I know it's a tradition here to call for showers and all sorts of things when these stories break. But, to openly wish that a bomb would fall on a U.S. city is just way over the line. Local joke or not.
I've seen other postings from you, and you're generally well-spoken and well-thought-out in your posts. Humor of this sort does not become you.
Agreed on your last comment. My mother was from Lawrence and I spent many a night as a child visiting my grandmother there. I remember the city when the immigrants swept the sidewalks out in front of there apartments, when English was the spoken language and if a parent wanted their child to learn their old world language they sent them to private classes after school (my mother was sent to "German" school). It was a very prosperous city once, even for those who worked for wages. Unfortunately, Lawrence just might be the model for what happens to a way of life when jobs leave chasing lower and lower wages like we are presently experiencing with China and the Pacific rim.
As one might guess it is quite different now and is an example of what liberalism and the welfare state will do to several generations of people.