Orlando Sentiel/MCTI wake up one day to the sound of a text message ringing through my phone. It reads: Murder in Warminster? I wake up a couple of days later to a new text that reads: Are you ok? I heard there was a stabbing at Cabrini.
In the past week, a 22-year-old man and a 27-year-old female from my hometown were shot and murdered in a dispute among several people. Just days later, there was a stabbing preceded by a dispute between two people on campus.
While these are both local incidents, I am absolutely astonished by the similar situations I am exposed to when turning on the local news everyday.
What is our world coming to? Is pulling a gun out and shooting someone or pulling a knife out to settle a dispute really worth it?
It is truly sad to me that such tragic events seem to be getting worse and worse as each day passes by. It seems that they are almost becoming consistent in their occurrences and that is a tragedy in itself.
I cannot imagine having it within me to point a gun at another human being and pull the trigger. Is it so far beyond us now that simple words cannot settle a dispute? Can we not be civilized enough to talk as adults rather than resorting to such extreme violence? I never thought it was that difficult.
Likewise, must we have the upper hand in a fight by using a knife rather than our fists? What happened to letting the best man win fairly? I am not in any way condoning physical violence but if it must come down to that, can’t we leave the weapons out of it?
All of this makes me think about the future and how scary it will be to bring children into this world under the circumstances. Will these situations escalate so much that they will become normal in our daily lives? Will I have to be petrified to let my children out of my sight in fear that they may get stuck in the middle of a tragic situation such as the ones that are consistently occurring now?
These situations are not unique to one specific area. They are occurring across the nation everywhere from the most rural suburbs to the most urban areas.
What really scares me is the complete disregard for human life and extreme lack of remorse that these situations entail. The specific incidents that I have researched have resulted from insignificant arguments over minuscule issues. Is a human life so disposable that it can be taken away or severely threatened in the heat of the moment? Wake up, people.
It is depressing to think that we live in a world where these situations continue to occur and devastating to think that lives can be lost so quickly without ever turning back. No matter the situation, no one should have to be in the middle of these tragedies.
A person must truly lack a conscience if they have it within them to toy with the life of another in an attempt to settle a silly dispute. Nothing can be so big that it cannot be worked out without resorting to death or extreme injury.
In a perfect world, I would wish for those people to grow a conscience and act like civilized human beings. Unfortunately, the world is not perfect.
