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3-20-01 // 1.02 am you've been having a nightmare and it's not over yet NP: Roger Waters - "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking" I tend not to take a political angle when I write in this thing. But tonight as I was working my way through the backlog of magazines on the table next to my bed, I came across an article in a recent issue of "Time" about the school shooting in Santee, California. And to be honest, I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around this trend. Every time I read another account of something like this, it scares the hell out of me. Of course, right now I hear the voice in the crowd yelling "so you only care now that it's these well-off suburban kids getting gunned down in school?" Well, no I've always thought it was tragic, no matter where it happens...I guess you could say it's an urban problem finally hitting the suburbs, I don't know. Now it just seems like it's kids that were facing the same sorts of things I faced & were in the same situations I was in, but they're taking such radical approaches to attempt to 'solve' their problems. When I was in high school, I didn't "fit in". I was picked on, bullied, teased, made to feel worthless. Many of my friends were in the same boat. But we didn't grab guns & open fire. I guess we got through it together...I suppose I didn't mind it all since I had thoughtful friends and family. I got a job and worked hard at that. There's that old saying that I remember someone quoting to me, "the best revenge is living well". That always stuck with me. And I smiled knowing that I was going to get out of that two bit town. These days, I smile a bit when I see that I did and just about all of them didn't. So where was I going with this...I'm just having trouble understanding why these kids are doing what they're doing. Sure the suburbs are alienating, but that's how they've always been. Fringe students have always found ways of coping & hanging in there. So what's going on with these kids now -- do their parents just not care? Where do they acquire such a cold-blooded disregard for human life? What's pushing them over the edge? I get creeped out. I have no idea if I'm ever going to have children, but there's no way in hell I'd ever feel comfortable having them if this is the sort of thing they'd have to deal with in their futures. This all really bothers me, and things just seem to keep getting worse.
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