The Median Sib

There is disturbing news from Tennessee today. A 15-year old student in a northeast Tennessee school opened fire and killed an assistant principal at his school and seriously wounded two other administrators. So far there is no word of what the student’s motives were. Had he gotten into trouble and been reprimanded by one of the administrators? Was he upset over poor grades?

Regardless of his reasoning, what would drive a 15-year old boy to want to kill someone else? This is the third time this year there has been violence in a Tennessee school. A school bus driver was killed by a student in March, and in August some boys were plotting to kill a teacher.

A couple weeks ago my school had a lock-down. It wasn’t a practice drill. I remember my feelings as I huddled in my classroom - out of sight of any windows, the doors locked, and my walkie-talkie on in order to hear any instructions or information that was available. There was uncertainty, fear of the unknown, and intense curiosity about what was going on. I was fortunate that it happened in between classes for me, and so I didn’t have any students in my room at the time. I knew it wasn’t a drill, but that was all I knew. After about 30 minutes we learned that the lock-down was the result of a prank phone call. One prank phone call caused several schools to be locked down and searched by police officers.

So today a 15-year old had something going on inside his head and he decided to shoot three administrators at his school. He ended the life of one, caused enormous physical and mental heartache in two others, made some children instantly fatherless, caused emotional turmoil and lifelong nightmares for many of his classmates, and he sealed his fate as a murderer. He will no doubt live out the rest of his life in either prisons or mental hospitals. It will be even more heartbreaking when we learn of what led to his actions. I would be willing to bet that all the death and destruction was the result of some insignificant incident - real or imagined - like a bad grade, too much homework or a consequence (Saturday School, suspension, etc.) that he considered unfair for something he had done.

Recently I flew with PawPaw to Georgia and back. As I looked down from 6,000 feet in the air, there was one thing that made an indelible impression on me - how hazy everything look from the air. From the ground, the day looked crystal clear, but from up above, the haze of pollution kept us from seeing the ground clearly.

I was reminded of that experience when I saw that The National Association of Evangelicals has cited Genesis 2:15 (”The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”) as its basis for circulating among its leaders the draft of a policy statement that would encourage lawmakers to pass legislation creating mandatory controls for carbon emissions.

It sure makes sense to me. There’s only one earth, and if we destroy it, we destroy ourselves.

Last week I read a news story that illustrates one of my fears - having surgery and being aware of what’s going on, feeling the pain, but being unable to communicate that to the doctors. It’s called anesthesia awareness. I’ve always thought that maybe the patient still feels the pain and is aware of what’s going on, but that the anesthesia makes the patient forget it.

I’ve had surgery once, and after the anesthesia was started and they asked me to count backwards from 100, I only got to 97. I wasn’t aware of anything else until I was in the recovery room. Once I had two wisdom teeth removed and the doctor “sedated” me — same effect for me - I was out of it until after it was over. I figure I’d be a great candidate for drug addiction because I remember the feeling of being sedated. Despite the tooth extraction. I woke up in happy land.

Back to the point of this post. The story I read was about Carol Weihrer, who awakened during surgery in 1998, but because the paralyzing portion of the “anesthesia cocktail” made her unable to move or indicate that she was aware and that she was feeling pain, she was trapped - aware but unable to communicate the situation to the doctors. She described what was going on - the pain, the music, the sensations, the surgeon’s words. It’s scary to think about. Apparently it happens more often than you’d think. There are machines that can monitor a patient’s brain activity and that should help to eliminate some of those horrifying experiences. If I ever have surgery again, it is definitely something I’ll ask the doctor beforehand.

“The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty.”
~Abraham Lincoln

Question: Who are the wolves in the Iraq war?