5/14/2013

Serious Thoughts

If you in a mood to be easily offended, stop reading here.  I am going to make some serious comments  that will probably inflame some passions and I'm going to make these comments with a serious demeanor and a straight face.

The headline in the Local Paper this AM was that the killer of four people in Franklin County's motive is unknown.    Over and over again I hear from people that they want to know what a person was thinking when he/she killed someone.  People, think about it.  If a person is logical and driven by the same things we all are, there is no killing.  If you think about it, you wouldn't kill.  We for the most part are social animals and think about our fellow man with compassion.  Sure, we might get mad at our little brother of a sister now and then but not to the point we forget they are a person.  If you lack the understanding of that basic tenant of life, you just kill, you don't think or have anything as complex as a motive.  Throw in a couple of beers, and that asocial person becomes a killer.  

I for one have long since given up any thought of finding out what makes guilty people think.  Capture them and put them away for as long as the law allows. I am thankful that the State of Arkansas has one person sitting on death row because I sure as hell wouldn't want some members of my family (me included) to shot him like a rabid dog.  In fact in my simple justice system he fits my Mad Dog Law.  We all know he raped and killed my niece, take him out behind the prison and shoot him.  The only motive I would have is justice, not some deep philosophical thoughts about mercy. 

Today I read the obituaries and there was only one in the paper today.  Some nice old guy, was born, married, raised kids, farmed, worked with the 4-H, fished and he died.  I'll bet he loved his life and if asked, doesn't regret anything.  That is pretty simple and a lot of the way I think about my life.  This week we lost a good friend of the family, Fred Clark.  I always tried to sit by him at the Thanksgiving dinner at the Craig's.  Fred was simply a hoot.  I'm sure that he had some complex parts about him but he also had a willingness to smile at the simple things and he was a,"Hail fellow well met."  He always made me feel like he was interested in everyone and people generally liked him.  He had pancreatic cancer and didn't last long once it was found.  He will be missed but not in a sad way for me.  I will always have a smile when I think about him.

On the other hand,  one of the nicest women I've ever met has stage IV Breast Cancer.  Statistically, she is a lot nearer to death than she is to having a long life.  I want her to know that her family will take all the lessons they learned from her and live their lives in good ways.  When my mother died, I grieved for a short while and applied the band-aid to that wound that my mother wold have wanted.  If someone could not make it to a family gathering, she would  simple say, "We'll miss you."  No big productions about scheduling, set a date and move on.  Someone would always think their schedule was more important that everyone else's schedule.   Life and death has no schedule, only the occurrence of each.  

One of my friends, also a Vietnam Veteran, said to me one day, "I don't understand the concept of suicide.  I do understand getting a gun and shooting the guy that made you feel that way."  I'm sure that in some ways he suffers from PTSD, but I think he has it about right.  He has spent most of his life recovering from the wounds he received from an AK-47 ,and I know he hurts every day of his life.   It was a mutual shooting and my friend did his best to shoot the enemy as he popped up out of a spider hole and shot him.  Back to my first thought, I don't think there was anything s deep as a motive, just a reaction to the events of the day. If you want motive, go write a book and include your own story line.  Just don't ask me to help you find it.





MUD

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