Bad Things
By H.G. Miller
I can remember being a small child and wondering why it was bad things
happened. Why did kids tease me about my overbite? Why did it hurt so much to
be stung by a bee? Why did our dog run away?
As I got older, the situations changed, but the questions remained. Why did
grandma have to die? Why did my car get broken into? Why did bad things happen?
A few months ago, a teenage boy was shot to death in a drive-by a block away
from where I pick up my morning paper. The closest I've ever been to violent
death, and I couldn't even begin to fathom how somebody finds it in themselves
to take the life of another.
And, the bad things keep happening.
So, now there are helicopters circling overhead. An occasional happening when
one has to live in the kind of neighborhood that I can afford. But, this time,
they're following somebody for a different kind of crime.
According to the police cruiser trolling by afterwards, it was a hate-crime
suspect. A man attacking some of the local Arab population. My neighbors.
People being retaliated against for a crime they had nothing to do with. A
crime perpetrated by people they were getting away from by moving to the United
States in the first place.
Why is it when bad things happen, they always seem to get worse?
My belief system is pretty simple:
1.) Killing people is wrong. Period.
2.) Disliking people and treating them unfairly for something they have no
control over (i.e. skin color, nationality, overbites and tastes in fashion) is
wrong. The only possible exception being people who consider techno music to be
artistic. They are only harming themselves and I think that the only possible
cure for this malady is a massive re-education effort.
See that, I'm trying to keep this light.
3.) I don't believe in organized religion. For that matter, I don't really have
a taste for anything that claims half the world to be wrong and therefore
damned to hell in the afterlife.
4.) I do believe in God.
5.) No, he doesn't talk to me. But I'd like to imagine that if he ever did, he
would keep the conversation light, assure me that the Kansas City Royals will
someday play over-five-hundred baseball, and ask that I call him something a
little more informal, like George.
The list keeps going, but the basic gist of it centers around taking the time
to realize that life is precious and amazing and that despite the bad things
that will continue to happen, we have an obligation as an enlightened society
to educate ourselves about our world and to weigh that knowledge heavily when
deciding upon things such as who to hate and how to harm them.
I am not wholly a pacifist. I am angry at the tragic death of an untold number
of people in New York this week. I can fathom even less the ability of nineteen
people to take their own lives in order to destroy the lives of thousands. I
will not be sad when their superiors are found and punished by blazing fire for
these sins.
However, the impending fireworks show aside, I wish more for compassion among
our own people. “Our own people” being defined as anyone who has come to the
United States in order to find a better life. I am not ignorant to the fact
that at some point my father's fathers migrated from someplace that was not
here.
The world isn't an easy place to live sometimes, and bad things will continue
to happen. We need to stick together during all of this. We need to realize
that the word “American” encompasses a lot of people, a lot of religions and a
lot of nationalities. And we're all trying to deal with this.
My neighbors are good people. They put out food for a stray cat. They get my
mail when I'm out of town. And, they agree with me whole-heartedly about the
techno thing.