[Newspoetry] thought

[Jay Morris]

This isn't really a newspoem.  Just a thought I can't keep thinking
about.  Does this analogy make any sense to anyone? Violence doesn't
make positive change.

Maybe something like this could be sneakable into the pro-war poetry
site.  I don't know how dumb their editors are.  Has anyone read
'Liberals stink' on that site? Beautiful.

Jay


****************
The kids at Columbine didn't really elect their leaders.  They didn't
choose who the jocks and the preps would be.  Sure, they lived in that
system.  They never spoke up when the football players pushed the less
popular kids around.  When the 'preppy' kids made cruel comments,
nobody spoke up.  They lived in that system.  When their teachers
talked about treating everyone with respect, all the kids agreed.
They'd all seen the after-school specials and learned their lessons,
and yet they didn't act to stop the mistreatment of their fellow
students.  To challenge their leaders was to risk ridicule, the worst
form of high school punishment.

The system is faulty.  The leaders benefitted from (and perpetuated)
this faulty system.  Were these leaders evil? Is there some way to
make them recognize the results of their behaviour and change it? Can
this system be changed?

Two boys thought they had an answer.  Their violence may or may not
have changed that system (locally and temporarily).  Was it worth the
'collateral damage'? Did any one of those children deserve to lose
their best friend or their life? Did they make any real changes to the
system? Did popular kids around the world work together to change
their behaviour? How many other options did those two boys consider?

In a country that leads the world in so many ways, can't anyone do any
better than those two boys?