bombing deepens life's reality
(2001-01-31) 23:39:20
I often think I am well sheltered from the outside world. I knew the world wasnt exactly 'perfect', but somehow the murders, burglaries, deaths and in this case, bomb threats werent very familiar to me. I knew it does happen.. but I never connect it with me because it often doesnt relate to me in any way. It just happened to other people.. people far away.. people that I would never meet in this lifetime. Then suddenly, I realize these threats are coming closer. Its not so far away anymore. In reality, I was "one of those far away people" that I thought I had no relation with. Now I am that person. Its hard to think that I am a part of this crowd of people experiencing the same situation.. because no one could possibly know what I am personally thinking.. and how this thing affects me. Only, we are facing the same things.. On Tuesday, during third period of my Chemistry Honors class, an announcement was made over the intercom speakers, saying that there was an emergency at the local college and the students that were taking classes there were not to go. So naturally, we were all wondering what the hell is wrong.. and we did find out.. later that night. There had been a bomb plot planned out in the college. The suspect lived in San Jose.. amazingly close to where my old house had been. [from when I was 6 until 9] He is 19, and graduated from the high school that was right across from my old house. That�s not the freaky part though.. its his whole plot.. including all these bombs/guns that he made, and tape recording.. something that was even disturbing to police officers. I thought it couldn�t possibly happen at the college.. it was just within 5 miles from my house.. Its creepy. Such incidents could probably even happen at my high school. Its almost like its warning signs.. but I always thought I am at a good neighborhood. My high school is one of the top 100 schools in the United States� according to SAT scores and such. Although we�re high in academic achievement.. we are equally high in the amount of druggies, smokers, etc. Even though we normally don�t see them, everyone could tell who is on drugs and who smokes. But the thing is, without proof, no one can just say so and so is on drugs. Some people would get caught.. and most are suspended or even expelled. Its strange though.. last year, NO one got expelled. The year before, only around 3 got expelled. Hmm. The point is, even in a nice little environment such as my school, its still scary. *Sigh* I refuse to think about it now.. We are selling lollipops for the class of 2003. So Im just wandering around with my box of lollipops of 25 cents each, a equally blended box of blue raspberries, extreme lemonade, sweet and sour, etc. Im really not a salesperson. I just cant go up to someone and ask if they want any.. I just stand around people, and they just come up to me. Sales had been pretty good today.. in the morning, before class alone, I had sold three. I didn�t even ask if they wanted any.. they just came and bought one. I even sold one to a construction worker.. haha. It�s perfectly logical that they want one, but most people just ignore them because they�re just everywhere. So I passed him a lollipop through a steel fence that surrounded him.. its pretty weird seeing a construction worker working with a lollipop in his mouth. I found out that America is the only country that is a capitalist country. That is so.. strange. We emphasize freedom and democracy.. and we end up with our capitalist country, America. It means �laissez faire�.. minimal government control. It works though.. we have a lot of money to spend, high cost of living.. but low welfare. My history teacher asked if we thought the taxes in the country is considered high, medium, or low [compared to other countries]? A lot of people raised their hands on high.. and I was the only one that raised my hands for low� because I knew taxes in Europe was really high. Well, I was right. While my parents may grumble about the high taxes [around 40%], the socialist countries have to pay around 70%.. while communist countries [like China] have to pay around 95%! So we began talking about the systems of government.. A good example of a socialist country would be England. [others include Canada, and all the Western European countries]. It�s a mix of capitalism and communism. It has some government control.. but focuses on democracy [like us, except we�re more into freedom] Although they have to pay a lot of taxes, its FREE to go to school, ALL through the years.. [unlike here where we have to pay a fortune for good universities.. especially private ones..] and I remembered Katrina telling me a long time ago that healthcare [in England] was free. That�s not the case here.. but I guess we don�t pay enough taxes for that. Communism SCARES me. I don�t know.. I went to China once, and no one had cars. Everyone seemed so poor.. and there just are no social classes.. everyone has the same amount of money and such.. Its totalitarian! [total government control] Im probably not used to it because Im used to a lot of freedom.. but its just scary that the government controls every little thing.. Now, America is struggling between capitalism and socialism. The thing is, right now every company has the right to name their own prices without government interference. That became a problem because sometimes the prices are too high, and its just.. wrong! Right now, PG&E, the electric/gas company is bankrupt or something, so we all have to preserve a lot of energy just because of this. They are going to randomly turn off electricity.. even at school we were warned that the power could go off any second. At this time, I think the government should somewhat interfere.. but once they do.. we�re leaning toward socialism. Is that bad? The Europeans seemed to be prospering� hmm. [except Germany but that�s another story..]
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