insanity
2003-10-03, 10:38 p.m.

Do you ever find yourself suddenly stopping and wondering what the hell is wrong with people? I opened the paper this morning to see that someone had decided to fire shots at the McDonald's just to see if he could hit anyone. Thankfully, he didn't. Directly next to this story was a huge headline about a man who shot his wife in their marriage counselor's office and then turned the gun on himself. As I continued reading, I noticed that the therapist in the story was one of the clients I bill for. I can't even imagine how he felt knowing that the crazy man could have easily turned the gun on him.

Anyway, it's just crazy because I live in a town where nothing exciting ever happens. Especially murders. Usually the headlines are about how many inches of rain we'll get this season or what the town council is going to talk about at tonight's meeting. We have drug deals, rapes, assaults, DWIs. All your basic small-town crime, but murders and shootings are odd. Two in one day is a complete anomaly. I'm sure all of you big-city folk are reading this, I sound like a country bumpkin, but I don't want to start opening the paper and seeing this everyday.

This all makes me think of February 19th, 1996. It was my junior year of high school and started out to be like any other day until we heard about the triple homicide. An assistant principal came in and told us that Mrs.Clark (an adored teacher and staff member) had been killed along with her husband and stepson. Immediately, we all wondered about her other son, Mike, who was in our grade. Mike wasn't particularly well-liked and I always thought he was a bit odd. However, I can't say I ever thought of him as a homicidal maniac.

Apparently, I should have. It turns out that 16 year old Mike mauled both his parents and then his brother. Finding this out was one of those moments where I was completely flabbergasted. You never imagine that a person who sits next to you in Social Studies or that you beaned with a ball in P.E. will turn out to be a murderer. I just remember being completely terrified and shocked at the ability people have to show a mask to the world and have a completely different personality underneath. It's horrible to think that someone you thought was just a tad strange could be so evil. I have no doubt that he was mentally ill to some extent, but my God, why didn't someone know? I guess it goes back to the masks that people wear.

Honestly, now that I think about it. Doesn't anyone who commits murder have to be at least a little insane? I'm not talking about the legal definition of insanity, but mental instability. I mean, even if a murder is pre-meditated down to the last detail, anyone who is considering murder has to be somewhat on the psychotic side. I can't come up with a single situation where someone could kill someone and not be mentally unstable. Even a victim taking out revenge on their attacker has some type of post-traumatic stress that leads to insanity.

I have no idea what this entry was supposed to be about, but all these thoughts were whirling around in my head. Maybe they'll go away now.

last - next