Too Bothered
I should have written a post yesterday or this morning, but the truth is, I was too shocked by a tragedy at the grocery store I go to a few times a week. This makes me a BIG chicken, but I’m so glad I wasn’t there when it happened. But when I heard about it, I was too upset to write.
At our local Kroger’s, one of the workers we talk to almost every time we go into the store was attacked and stabbed to death by a customer whom she wouldn’t sell alcohol to. Kroger’s has a policy that no matter what your age, you have to show your license when you buy alcohol. I know because I love wine, and I’m WAY past twenty-one and still have to show my license every time I buy a bottle of pinot grigio. And that’s okay with me. It takes the pressure off the check-out people to have to ask if you can prove you’re of legal age.
A man went through the self-checkout and got beeped because he was buying alcohol. The lady who always looks over those check-out machines told him that she couldn’t let him buy anything without seeing his license. He got mad at her, threatened the workers in the store, and stormed out to his car. BUT, he came back with a knife, grabbed our wonderful lady from behind, and stabbed her in the back of the neck, then knocked her to the floor and kept stabbing her until he ran out of the store. She died shortly after. The police arrested him later in the afternoon but not before our check-out lady was dead.
The whole episode floored me. I couldn’t understand why anyone would get so mad they’d come back to kill someone because she wasn’t allowed to sell him liquor. Then I got depressed because, even though we only knew each other from the store, I really LIKED the woman. And I just can’t seem to understand what’s driving people to kill anyone and everyone these days.
I know I’m older and maybe out of touch, and I write mysteries where I kill people on paper, but I JUST DON’T GET IT. In mysteries, murderers have a REASON to kill. It might not be logical to anyone else, but it drives them. I just can’t wrap my head around someone living so close to the edge, so angry, that he’d kill someone, anyone just because they didn’t drive fast enough on the freeway or accidentally cut in front of him, or because something, anything tripped his trigger. WHY are so many people so angry these days? The news is depressing almost every night anymore. What has happened to us as a society? I don’t have any answers, and I’m happy to see people leaving flowers and candles at the store where my nice acquaintance died, but this really threw me. I hope someday, soon, people start respecting each other again.
