Rachel A. Jablonski, streamofconsciousness.net
December 9, 2004
"People like to kill
people," my Dad warned in a serious I-told-you-so tone, his voice
raising in pitch at the end of the sentence. I laughed. Nothing had happened
and nothing was going to happen. My Dad was simply trying to deter me
from my decision to independently travel to the DC/Baltimore area to see
a performance by the former Baltimore band click., the big city, and to
take a vacation from home for awhile in 2002. I was going to stay and
depend upon friends in DC whom I did not know well at the time. But I
knew enough to know that these were friendly, caring, and musically passionate
people whose company I would enjoy. More than anything I believe my Dad's
motive for discouraging me revolved around "if you can pay for a
trip, you can pay for college tuition." A valid point, but this trip
was important to me. In the end, as I had expected, my trip to DC was
the best trip I've had thus far in my life. People are good people.
But not always.
I sometimes become engulfed in perhaps naive thinking that people generally
carry genuinely good intentions. Then something happens that pulls me
back into reality. Bad things do happen because of human negligence or
jealousy or vengefulness or thrill or for god knows what reason. Last
night when I found out Dimebag Darrell of DamagePlan, formerly of Pantera,
had been shot and killed while on stage at a show in Ohio, my stomach
dropped and in shock I again awoke to reality. Though I make fun of my
Dad and his ridiculous warning from two years ago still, sometimes his
phrase "People like to kill people" is unfortunately true.
In memory of Dimebag and the other innocent people killed last night,
please take a moment to put things in perspective, rethink your reality,
and continue to be the good people that you are. My thoughts go out to
the families, friends, concert goers, and everyone affected by the incident
last night. RIP Dime and the others. We are thinking of you.