Just a Memory

This happened the first year that we lived in Arkansas.
CNN.com - Jonesboro school shooter free - Aug 12, 2005: "'I'm glad he's not coming back to Jonesboro. Too many people in this area would put a hole in him,' resident Greg Slayton said. Whitney Irving, a student at the middle school when the shootings occurred, said she and others still struggle to cope with what happened seven years ago. 'I want to ask him personally: Have you changed? Do you feel sorry for what you did? Have you suffered like we have?' she said. 'Of course, there's no way he's suffered as much as we have.' She added, 'In my eyes, he's always going to be a killer. I mean I don't see how you can go from being a killer to being a minister, especially just in seven years.'"
Several things come to mind about this. I understand the grief of all the families involved. But I keep coming back to Mitchell Johnson. I wonder how much he remembers about that day. How clearly he was thinking. What would I have done if one of my friends just opened fire at my school. I remember feeling really distant to what happened, even though it was just a few hours away. To see it broadcast on CNN was unreal. How could a child do that? Hasn't this happened before? What have we been missing?
No reason was given and it soon became one in several unexplained school shootings. Everyone was blaming each other. Kids were wondering what the hell was going on and if they might be next. Security alerts were heightened, some schools adding in metal detectors. It's still going on today with video games and no short supply of ritalin. I can't imagine what it would be like to get a phone call that there had been a shooting at the school where my child is at. Was my child shot? Do I know who the shooter was? God help us.