Why are some people so mean?
Why?
By Warren E. Domke
Why are some people so selfish and mean?
“It’s my way, not your way, nothing in between.”
Why?
Why must they hate and try to cause pain?
“I’ve nothing to lose, and everything to gain.”
Why?
Do they draw comfort from other folks’ tears?
“Why should I care? I don’t even like my peers.”
Why?
Why do some murder and injure and maim?
“If I’m going to suffer, I wish you the same.”
Why?
No reason, no answers, just silence I fear.
“Your pain is your pain, for you I’ve no tear.”
Why?
My life has been long, I laugh and I love.
And I look to the angels and to God up above.
That’s why.
And I’m grateful for every moment of life.
I’m happy for peace, and times without strife.
That’s why.
If tears I must shed, let them be tears of joy.
If people must notice, please smile, not annoy.
That’s why.
I wish you the same as I would have my life be,
A span of many decades, with horizons to see.
That’s why.
Please join me, I’ll offer my outstretched hand.
A band we will be, but I’ll hope it a happy band.
That’s why.
We’ll smile, we’ll sing, we’ll heal, we’ll caress.
We’ll share the joy, share the care, no more and no less.
We’ll live, we’ll laugh. With never a sigh,
Never a protest, no, not an excuse, just to get by.
We’ll make this world better, you, you all, us and I.
So all can be happy. And that, friends, is why.
(This was inspired by the untimely death of a friend of mine, murdered by a person he was trying to help. He was a pillar of our community, a good man. I’m trying to find something good in his passing, and I think I might have found it.)
Sometimes we begin what we write with little passion and little feeling, and as the words flow the passion grows. And sometimes when this happens our words and our words take flight. This was how this felt. I hope it comes across in that way.
The person he was trying to help died a short time afterwards from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was not immediately located, but was found about two days after the murder. There are many unanswered questions about the how and why concerning this crime. We may never have even the most important answers and will never have all of them. In the meantime a man who had so much more to give has been taken away before he could even give voice to the other things he wanted to do. But through the good things he was able to do, he lives on.