While at work the other day, I was amazed at how people act in frustrating situations and, more importantly, how they respond with horrid remarks. I wish that one woman in particular, who was upset with the service she had received, had listened to herself and heard what she was saying.
It all started when she did not want to pay $60 for the services that were rendered on her car. She believed that because the problem had not been fixed that there should be nothing owed. However, it was explained to her that there would be a $60 fee just to look at the car and diagnose the problem, to fix it would be a different charge. She made the mistake of saying, “If only I had a bomb.”
I was astounded and appalled by her thoughts. Why anyone would wish death upon another life, because of a $60 service fee that was agreed to when the car was dropped off, is incomprehensible to me.
I could not believe that after everything that has happened throughout the world, and most recently in Oklahoma City, that another seemingly innocent person would want to harm the lives of others over a measly $60. Hasn’t she been watching the news? Hasn’t she been talking to her friends? Where did she get her value of life?
The Oklahoma bombing has been all over the news. People on the street and at work are talking about it. New security measures have been taken at federal buildings across the country, and yet people still do not understand the devastation. Maybe more people should pitch in and help the Red Cross and churches and other groups that are trying to help the community of Oklahoma City regain its composure.
I cannot help but wonder whether the woman’s friends are just like her or if they are different. If she thinks that she can make an idle threat to strangers that do not understand her sense of humor or personality, what does she tell her friends or threaten them if she feels she is getting the raw end of the deal? I do not want to imagine what it would be like to meet that bunch in a dark alley.
To think that money has become more important than human life to a great number of people, or that religious cults and militias would want to sacrifice the lives of others, is absolutely disgusting. I never thought that people could be so ignorant to think that making a simple comment such as she did would not be taken offensively. If only she had known what I was thinking.
Given a proper chance, I probably would have told her right where she could plant that little bomb. But then, what would that have solved? The devastation of bombs is something that no child, woman or man should have to experience.
If she thought that a bomb would solve the problem of a $60 balance, she is nuts. What she should have wished was that her car never had a problem.
The sad part of all of this is that the woman probably did not literally mean what she said. And if the Oklahoma bombing had not been so recent and so close to home, I probably would not have been so taken aback by her idle threats. She would have been just another ticked off customer in the world of the service industry and we would have forgotten about her shortly after she walked out the door.
It took the bombing and the death of many innocent people and their children for me to realize that life is precious and can be taken away very easily. It took that rubble for me to realize that idle threats are just as serious as real threats. The mere thought of wanting to take someone’s life over $60, or anything else for that matter, is absurd.
I would like to think that everyone would much rather be at peace with each other than live in a world of mayhem. I guess that is where my true näivete lies. I do not understand why people like to hurt one another when the same could happen to themselves and their loved ones. Maybe I can help to change that somehow in the future.
