He was 19 year old Robert A. Hawkins of Bellvue, Nebraska. Sure I'm angry about his horrific, violent and very adolescent act. Eight lives... could have been your family or mine. Just stupid.
His landlady described him as "a lost puppy that nobody wanted." He wasn't tolerated at home, lost his job at McDonald's, and had recently broken up with his girlfriend. He was yet another boy "with emotional problems," gone hopeless and angry about the cruelty and abandonment that will certainly be discovered as the story of his life.
I'm left with some sense of responsibility as a man and a lot of questions. Did I/we let him or the multitude of boys like him down by not showing up in their lives? Is that an exaggeration, too big a job? Should we be doing something. How many boys like Robert need to wave this bloody red flag before we get it. I guess I'm grieving... angry, sad, and in shock... again.
Take a quiet moment to honor the lives lost in Omaha . . . and be sure to include Robert. He was not a bad kid, just a lost puppy.
Hug your family and friends right now, and then find a loner boy somewhere and hug him in some way too.
And always, always take an adolescent with a gun seriously.
Love... Earl
Oddly, i just got off the telephone with a man who lives in the area where this shooting occurred. He said we are up in arms about global warming and don't take steps to help prevent violence of this sort. My take; easier to talk about global issues than to face the ones in the neighborhood I live in...
ReplyDelete