A Certain Lack of Focus

Monday, October 02, 2006

A Little Rant

Who the hell kills Amish people? I mean, school shootings are screwed up to begin with, shooting children (teens whatever) is evil period, whatever religion you belong to. But this isn't just kids, this isn't just the normal suburban defenseless, these are Amish kids. Talk about people who've never done any harm to anyone. Its never justifiable, but I don't understand how the most diseased mind can come up with any reason to do this.
I'm twenty five, so my high school years were during the height of school shootings- by students. I grew up in Eugene, Oregon, twenty minutes from Springfield: the site of the Thurston shooting. One of my classmates was a playmate of Kip Kinkle when they were little kids, and another went to prom with a girl who was shot in the head. I take school shootings personally. But you know, as tragic as Thurston and Columbine were, and those were truly horrible things, I sort of get it. I remember being a teenager, and anyone else who remembers knows the truth of this statement: teenagers are freaking nuts. No, that doesn't justify their actions, by any means, but I find it a lot easier to at least understand what went wrong, when a mixed up, unhappy sixteen year old goes postal, next to a THIRTY TWO YEAR OLD MAN, who shoots a bunch of Amish kids, as REVENGE for something that happened to him twenty years ago.
I mean, obviously, these guys are also nuts. But what really bothers me, is why are all these people crazy? High school angst I get, what's going on, what's in the water? Our society has a lot of problems, but what is it that makes people decide that it's ok to kill other people?

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