Kids today....
Wednesday, 10. October 2007, 20:26:26
There was a school shooting today around the corner and two blocks north of my office building.
Apparently some of my coworkers were watching the hubbub from their office windows.
It just seems so surreal.
For some reason, it reminds me of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame Parade we watched from the conference rooms in our old building on East 9th Street. It was a cold drizzly day, for some reason that always seems to be the weather whenever there is a parade in Cleveland, and we were all warm and cozy in our conference room looking down on the parade as it went by.
Well today is a cold and drizzly day and my co-workers were warm and cozy looking down as a tragedy happened by.
Ever since I heard about it, which was about 20 – 30 minutes ago, I have been inundated with people pontificating about the incident. Here are a few of the snippets I have heard today.
One innocent enough comment about the “good ole days”:
“Back when I was a kid, which wasn’t that long ago, the bad kid at school was the one who stole the date stamp from the librarian.”
One wry attempt at humor:
“What is it going to do to my commute?”
One bizarre attempt at “why didn’t they prevent that”:
“I heard that he always wore black and liked to wear hoods, why didn’t somebody talk to him about that.” (Apparently this is always a clue that someone is going to go on a shooting rampage. Did you know this? I didn’t. Apparently all Goths are really homicidal maniacs in really poor disguises. Just like all only A-rabs are terrorists, which must be good news for the IRA and people like Timothy McVeigh.)
Three grim soulless bastards, not surprisingly from a person with a lesbian sister who is anti-gay marriage:
“I’m glad he’s dead.”
“He deserved to die.”
“I have no sympathy for anyone who does that.”
I know the shooter was a young man of about 15.
I know he hurt, but did not kill, 5 people; 3 students and 2 teachers.
I have been told he committed suicide.
The Dali Lama says that if you want to make other people happy, show compassion and if you want to make yourself happy, show compassion.
I am not surprised that school shootings happen and I am not particularly shocked when they do. People live painful lives and the pain surfaces in horrific ways.
Because ultimately it’s all about me, I am now going to be subjected to the usual vapid discussions about how its his parents fault, or the school’s fault, or why didn’t somebody notice that he liked to wear black. He obviously played too many violent video games / watched too much TV / Drank the Kool-aid. If only he had gone to church more....
What is it about modern America that makes people think the only option available to them is an outburst of horrific violence followed by suicide?
Is this really a post WWII phenomenon?
Apparently some of my coworkers were watching the hubbub from their office windows.
It just seems so surreal.
For some reason, it reminds me of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame Parade we watched from the conference rooms in our old building on East 9th Street. It was a cold drizzly day, for some reason that always seems to be the weather whenever there is a parade in Cleveland, and we were all warm and cozy in our conference room looking down on the parade as it went by.
Well today is a cold and drizzly day and my co-workers were warm and cozy looking down as a tragedy happened by.
Ever since I heard about it, which was about 20 – 30 minutes ago, I have been inundated with people pontificating about the incident. Here are a few of the snippets I have heard today.
One innocent enough comment about the “good ole days”:
“Back when I was a kid, which wasn’t that long ago, the bad kid at school was the one who stole the date stamp from the librarian.”
One wry attempt at humor:
“What is it going to do to my commute?”
One bizarre attempt at “why didn’t they prevent that”:
“I heard that he always wore black and liked to wear hoods, why didn’t somebody talk to him about that.” (Apparently this is always a clue that someone is going to go on a shooting rampage. Did you know this? I didn’t. Apparently all Goths are really homicidal maniacs in really poor disguises. Just like all only A-rabs are terrorists, which must be good news for the IRA and people like Timothy McVeigh.)
Three grim soulless bastards, not surprisingly from a person with a lesbian sister who is anti-gay marriage:
“I’m glad he’s dead.”
“He deserved to die.”
“I have no sympathy for anyone who does that.”
I know the shooter was a young man of about 15.
I know he hurt, but did not kill, 5 people; 3 students and 2 teachers.
I have been told he committed suicide.
The Dali Lama says that if you want to make other people happy, show compassion and if you want to make yourself happy, show compassion.
I am not surprised that school shootings happen and I am not particularly shocked when they do. People live painful lives and the pain surfaces in horrific ways.
Because ultimately it’s all about me, I am now going to be subjected to the usual vapid discussions about how its his parents fault, or the school’s fault, or why didn’t somebody notice that he liked to wear black. He obviously played too many violent video games / watched too much TV / Drank the Kool-aid. If only he had gone to church more....
What is it about modern America that makes people think the only option available to them is an outburst of horrific violence followed by suicide?
Is this really a post WWII phenomenon?
WIDGETIZE