A moment of silence

Ages ago Jon and I listened to an episode of The Shadow radio series, in which a father turns to crime to pay for his daughter's heart operation. His wife, not knowing the desperate ends he's considering, cries: "She's got to have her chance!"

I mention this because, as my mind wandered this afternoon, I thought of all the people who don't exist now because of what was done to them in high school. There are the people who aren't here because they took their own lives, of course. But then there are the people who aren't here now, because the people they were then were bent and broken by their peers, with the tacit collaboration of those who owed them a duty of care. Who would they be now? Who would I be?

Obviously, the same thing applies to any situation where injustice and cruelty denies people the chance they should have had.