Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Terrible things and debts

Terrible things in our country. So far we haven’t had any suicide bombers (that I know of), but in the last couple years we have had a couple Church shootings, College shootings by students, College shooting by faculty and mothers accused of killing their children. This started at the Post Office, I think. Some ‘quick witted (?)’ journalist started using the term ‘going postal’.


When you get depressed enough, or pushed enough and you see no way out, you might do something ‘crazy’. Have you ever tried to imagine how you would feel if all of a sudden you were accused of something terrible you did not do? And no matter how hard you tried to explain it, it got worse.
The only times I’ve been in that position has been traffic tickets. Twice I have been given citations when I was absolutely not speeding. The more I talked the worse it got. Especially one incident, it was a state trooper in rural NC and a Justice of the peace, both smiling as I protested. The ‘judge’s decision remained the same’: $50 or go immediately to jail.

I had no choice but to pay, jail would have meant missing troop movement as I was scheduled to deploy two days from then. The Judge and trooper knew this.
For years after that I pictured taking a case of shells and my automatic shotgun and ‘blowing that little town apart’. Of course it was all a fantasy, but I have often thought how easy it would have been to carry out the fantasy, if as we say, someone is a ‘sandwich short of a picnic’.



Stress has become a factor, or is it that we cannot handle stress as well as we used to (as a society)? There has never been a time when there was not stress. One problem is, fifty years ago if you lost your job, all you really needed was food to tide you over. Churches, family and friends could help until one found work.



But today when a person loses their job they have this $1500 house payment, $500 car payments, $300 credit card payments, and several other ‘credit’ debts. Friends, churches and family cannot make those. It is not just food anymore! Therefore ‘extreme stress’, brought on by poor planning, but it is there none the less.
So I find myself trying to understand why Kids kill kids at school and teachers kill teachers. I don’t think I will ever understand it!
Just my ramblings. Thanks for coming this way.
Nite Shipslog
PS: Actual questions and answers from kids, from Evelyn (I love this one):


HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.-- Derrick, age 8





8 comments:

shirl72 said...

I have been upset and after leaving the situation I wish I would have said this. I don't
guess I have every wanted to hurt anybody just spout off. I may have wanted to smack them. I now worry when in a crowd that there might be one of those stressed out people that goes berserk. I wonder what I would do but hope I will never have to decide.

Fred Alton said...

I'm with Shirl on wondering what I would do. I'm a mild-mannered person for the most part - but have threatened to whip two young guys who were making smart remarks about my young wife who was accompanying me through the streets of N.O. LA. That was back in the late '50s. Today my temper is not as easily set off and I'm a .40 cal carrier with a permit. The law says I can shoot if I am in fear of serious bodily harm to myself or someone else. However "the law in TN has ruled that a broken jaw is NOT serious bodily harm!" At least that's what the legal assistant said at our carry class when they were selling insurance. Made you think you would need insurance if ever you had an incident! So I will try to keep a lid on any temptation to throw a temper tantrum! ☺

Paula said...

Once when I worked at the tiny telephone office in my hometown I was accused by a customer of taking their telephone payment and not giving them a reciept then they were charged a second time. They were causing such a stink my Daddy wanted to just pay their bill. The only time I stood up to my Daddy. I said no I did not take that money and if you pay if the money is missing it will look to my boss as if I did take it. She did believe me over what the people said and I don't know how she handled it as we heard no more. When the lady died who accused me I went to her visitation and looked at her in her casket. I don't know why I just wanted to do that and I was grown and married by then. It hurts to be accused of something you didn't do or wouldn't do.

Helen said...

That was sad news about the teacher In Huntsville AL killing and injuring all those other teachers. Make you wonder what state of mind people get in that make them do that. There are a lot of things coming forth about her though. Sounds like she is off her rocker a lot. I have never been and hope I never get mad enough to harm other people like that. Helen

betty said...

I think we have stress these days (not the whole answer but some of the answer) that we are living way beyond our means. Most people before the crash of last year was living on 108% of their income; do the math; when it falls apart and they can't live like that, good reason for them to possibly get stressed, depressed, etc. Sadly some act on their sadness and depression and stress and hurt others. also people turned away from God; took prayer out of school, made it politically correct not to talk about him. And we wonder why we are stressed

betty

Lucy said...

I agree there is so much violence in this world today, and I do wonder why. Yesterday was the first time I have ever felt so vulnerable since Alan died. When you read my blog you will understand. They showed pictures of a car that had crossed the median on the interstate and slammed into a pickup, You would not have recognized they were vehicles. One person life flighted to the hospital and 4 dead.

Display Name said...

This is a different take....I think that the increase of chemicals in our food and the doctors who are basically pill pushers have changed our physiology. People can't handle the stress of the "modern" world. I couldn't and something snapped. I'm lucky that I've more or less recovered, but under the influence of pharmaceuticals that were supposed to "help" me, I never felt more violent and angry in my entire life. Since I dropped all that stuff and cleaned my system of processed foods, I feel better and am more able to cope with stuff. That's my thought du jour!! :)

Anonymous said...

What a moving entry of yours. There were various incidents of the same nature over in Germany during the last couple of years, and only a few over here in Athens.
Agree with you that the influence of the environment one has to live in is far too strong many times to bare.
Wishing you all a safe and happy Friday.