Tell Me Why

A couple of weeks ago a couple of kids started a dog on fire here in Buffalo. Thankfully the dog survived.

This past weekend a couple of people decided to beat up a 96-year-old man during a robbery. The old guy is also hanging in there.

Can you explain why those things happened?

I get that there is a real disconnect between what should happen and what does happen. I do understand that there's just a meanness in this world, but seriously. Can you even imagine watching either of those things go down?

Can you tell me why a young woman who'd been busted for drunk driving a few years ago would get back behind the wheel, again, drunk as a skunk, cross a center line and plow into a mother and her child? Mom has survived so far. The baby did not.

Why, after all the time and effort put into it do we still have drunk drivers? Will it ever end?

Can you tell me why a couple of men in the Niagara Falls area would drive by a car and open fire?

The only person in the car was a toddler who took gun shots to the face.

What could that baby have done to become a victim of a drive-by shooting?

Can you tell me why every single story on the news seems to be more horrible then the one before?

In my job I get to meet all sorts of people. I was teaching a class a few weeks back when one of the men told me that he needed me to 'cover for him' for an hour as he had to go to court.

"I can't do that," I said.

"Well, I either attend all of the class or I go to jail," he said. "I don't want to go to jail because I have a baby at home. I need the class to be able to work. What can you do for me?"

The guy was sort of defiant. I decided to be the same.

"How is this my problem?" I asked.

"I made mistakes," he said. "I just need to start over. Can you help?"

I don't know what made me do it, but I asked.

"Why did you get arrested?" I asked.

"Selling," he said. "Second time."

"Can you help me?" he asked as I turned away.

"I will if you answer me a question," I said.

"Anything," he responded. He had jewelry stuck in holes he made all over his face.

"Can you tell me why you'd bring a kid in the world if you don't intend on being a man?"

He just stared at me. I'm sure he wanted to punch me, but he needed me, so he didn't.

"I'm trying to do better," he said. "Will you help?"

I stayed an extra hour to teach him the part of the lesson that he missed. I listened to him tell me time and again that he was starting all over, clean and sober.

Tell me why, after reading the news, I don't believe him.

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