10 years later

The topic of conversation at the staff room during lunch was bullying. My tea lady asked if bullying was a big problem in the United States. Was she for real?, I thought to myself. I thought Americans were thought to be the biggest bullies in the world.

I told her, yes, it is a big problem. And then, my mind suddenly drifted back to Columbine ten years ago. A part of me was shocked that ten years had already passed. I still remember being a high school student myself, being in a classroom during physics class, discussing this incident.

After that, I also told her that because of recent economic problems, many people are killing with guns. She quickly asked if these people were killing themselves or other people. I told her that they were taking their own lives as well as killing others in shooting sprees . She then said, "I can understand if they are killing themselves, but why are they dragging others into this mess?"

Yikes.

I've been reading about numerous stories on the news about these killings. The violence still astounds me. It's the quickest way to resolve the immediate issue, but it leaves scars that will never quite heal.

One of these stories sort of stuck in my mind. A man had gone into a building with offices/classrooms for immigrants who wanted to pass the US citizenship exam and he killed many people. One of the reasons given for this act was that he had lost his job and that others were making fun of his accent when speaking English.

Neither of the two are uncommon in the US and neither is a justification for hurting others, but you start to realize how something so basic can affect people. Not having a job puts us in a vulnerable situation of not being able to eat, sleep under a roof-- survive. I wonder if things would have been different if one (more) person had extended a helping hand or said a kind word to this man.