Saturday, May. 03, 2003 - 7:20 p.m.
Debt as of today: $253,267.37
Cost of a Gallon of Gas: $1.99
Weight: 170.0
What I am reading: The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)
What I am listening to: 90210
Website of the day:
Feed a homeless animal with a single click
Reading POLLY-ESTHER'S journal entry made me think about life and death. When I was growing up, my grandfathers good friend was named Al. He worked as a prison guard at the local prison. He went to work one day, in 1981, and was stabbed to death during a prison fight. Although I knew he worked at the prison, I did not really think about his life being in danger.
I found out years later that two inmates were fighting, and one inmate pushed another inmate into Al, and punctured his heart with some sort of prison knife. The inmate is still on death row, and claims is still appealing based on the fact that his intent was to kill the other inmate and not Al, and therefore it is not "murder."
Fast forward two decades. I work with a shy kid who would give me cat litter in exchange for rides to work. A young kid who had been living on his own since he was 12 and was desperately trying to get his life in order. He would hang out at my house and would always volunteer to work overtime when I needed him. He snapped one day and shot his Mom and Stepdad. Although not on de@throw, he is looking at the rest of his life in jail, which is a long time when you are in your early 20's. (On a side note, there were a lot of people who looked down on my because I remained friends with him throughout the trial and after--as though I was guilty of murder)
Murder can happen in a split second. It really can happen at any moment. Unfortunately I think people have become immune to it. I live near Oakland, California, and every morning it seems that there is either a homicide or an attempted one. Many people here assumed that L@ci Peters@n was dead and murdered.
When I was in the UK a few years ago, they had a little boy that had been murdered and the entire country was in mourning. (Yes, I know there are a lot fewer people living in England than here). I remember the press talking about how they were not going to contact the family for interviews to give them time to mourn. I was shocked. Shocked that murder was so uncommon there.
I envied that--I still do.
TTFN
OKINAWA
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