Nothing to say.

[kaitou]

198 dead, and 1,400 wounded that we know of. It made my english lang. newspaper this morning, but the article was obviously old, and didn't convey the true damage. It wasn't until I read flidgetjerome's post that I knew how bad it was. I will never, never understand the kind of cold inhumanity it takes to commit these kinds of acts, to plan in such a way as to hurt the most people possible, in the worst ways possible. And I don't want to understand.

This follows fast on the heels of finding out that one of the students of another ALT who I know vaguely from a JET message board was murdered yesterday. A seven year old girl, a first grader, was lured into a neighbor's apartment and when she struggled and yelled, a 26 year old man strangled her to death.

And yesterday the "Kobe Killer" a man who killed three children and seriously injured two more was released on parole. He was 14 years old when he killed an elementary school first grader and left the boy's head on the junior high school gate. And now the police are helping him hide his identity and get a job in Tokyo.

The world seems like an awfully sick place right now. I'm trying to remember what a good afternoon we had at my school today, where we threw a party to congradulate the third year students on their upcoming graduation. Where we sang songs for them, and played games with them, and showed video memories of their time at Mito Junior High, and had people from their past come to give them special words of encouragment and congratulations. Humanity is better than those sick fucks seen above. We are better than terrorists and murderers. We have to be.

Comments

[flidgetjerome.livejournal.com]

*Hug*

I was in this situation when 9/11 happened. A couple of days the attacks, while everyone was still in shock, I got news that my friend's brother had been murdered.

The two things were completely unrelated and it was just a horribly effective reminder of how these terrible things will keep happening, and they don't stop happening just because you've got other horrors to deal with.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

Yes, we ARE better than terrorists and murderers, or we wouldn't even be thinking about the fact. I can get angry at how somebody hurt me and briefly consider how satisfying it would feel to make sure they never breathed again... but I'll also consider the question of right or wrong at the same time (even if the thought of my ex-husband becoming a statistic has a certain appeal to it). Somebody who is capable of an act like the Kobe murders or the 911 tragedy has a vacuum where their heart should be-- and a block of stone in the place of their conscience.