Selfishness no excuse for public acts
by Carlos Raigosa, editor-in-chief

     Open letter to gun-toting maniacs:
     What are you trying to accomplish? Is scaring and harming others filling a gap that can only be satisfied through greed and useless attempts for attention?
     The incidents last week at Newman Smith and L.D. Bell high schools seem to show that society has become more copycat than original, more abrasive than comforting and down right bad.
     It has gotten to the point where I feel no pity for the sick people who continue to harass the rest of the population with their problems.
     Well, let me say this to those who want to inflict their problems on society. You seem to believe that your problems are greater than mine and that the rest of us should pay more attention to you.
     I have news for you. I don’t care about your life, and you shouldn’t care about mine. But listen, I care enough for my own life that if you want to relieve your stress by sending a bullet through your head, go for it. Just don’t do it around anyone else because stray bullets can harm others or other’s property.
     You’re old enough to know how to deal with your problems, whether school, family or financial. Ending your life sounds like an attainable alternative to ending your problems when you’ve hit rock bottom, but why end someone else’s? It’s pure selfishness.
     I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life, and I’m not meaning to tell you to kill yourself either, but I’m angry that we need metal detectors at school, hospitals and churches. Why is this happening?
     Have we turned to savages? Or have we always been this way and the ease of obtaining fire weapons brought out the Dylan Klebolds and Eric Harrises of our generation.
     Your first remedy should be to get help—serious help from friends, family or professionals. Don’t get your counseling from a syringe, a joint or a bottle.
     You will find that this rut you are in can be leveled out and turned into a positive experience and that your existence on Earth will be more fruitful if you are alive and not six-feet deep inside a casket.