Friday, December 07, 2007

The mall shootings and a classic from Marvin Gaye

I had a much longer post about the shootings but deleted it. I just can't understand this senseless shooting at the Westroads Mall in Nebraska.

I volunteer with foster and at risk children. Some of the things these young people have been through would break most adults. The shooter said he wanted to be famous. Now he infamous which is different. I know he had a lot of pain in his life but he did have people close to him who tried to help him. That he could shoot an innocent person in the back shows a complete lack of empathy. Not everyone who grows up in a tough situation goes out and mows down people so they can be on the evening news.

I don't know there are more of these type of shootings or if we are just more aware of them. The United States has always had a problem with a high level of violent crimes compared to other industrialized nations. The only country that is even close is South Africa (hmmm interesting).

Anyway I really try not get too down and feel like all hell is breaking loose. While people make fun of Jennifer Love Hewitt, a size two woman, for being "fat" the war continues, the mortgage industry is in free fall, and we still have too many freaking guns in this country.

This song is from the early 70s and unfortunately the lyrics could have been written today. The version I found on YouTube is from an out of print movie from 1973. It's a great live (and long) version of Gaye's "What's Going On". Preach on brother Marvin, you died way too soon but your music lives on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

tracey k/Ohio: Brother Marvin Gaye's classic is certainly right on time for these times. Driving home the other day, the DJ said the exact same thing you said and played this exact song. Sadly, it's a timeless song. I'm with you on trying to stay 'above' all the bad things that's goin on these days, but its not easy to do when all the news is 28 minutes of stuff that scares the shit out of you and 2 minutes of one quick "feel good" story. Heavy sigh.... Let's continue to keep our heads up in spite of it all! :-D

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

tracey k - you are so right. The local news' motto seems to be "if it bleeds it leads".

Jen said...

Amen