jhall@ihuxu.UUCP (John R. Hall) (12/25/83)
Enemies are definitely partially responsible for suicides. Enemies: "That large group of antagonistic or apathetic uncaring people." Back in junior high there were a couple of "bullies" that made school a real terror for some of us. I was lucky in that I was in the marching band; this gave me a group of people to hang out with and protect me. But I can still remember doing such things as planning my route between classes so as to avoid the bad guys. When I ended up in the same class as one of them, I told the teacher I had already taken it and he let me transfer out (he believed that?). Now there was another young gentleman singled out as a target. He wasn't in the band; what he really dug was history class. His prime enemy was also unfortunately one of the most popular guys in school (sports, girlfriend on the drill team, etc.). One of the more demeaning things they made him do was suck on a doorknob as I recall (isn't that preposterous?). He was told more than once to go kill himself. So one day he did it, with a rifle. He left a suicide note on a history test the day before. The enemy continued to be popular, but I bet I'm not the only one to hold him responsible. I used to have violent dreams back then about killing the bullies; my favorite was to be driving along and see one of them pulled to the side of the road fixing a flat tire. They'd try to wave me down and I'd run them over, in living color! I really wonder what the guy who killed himself dreamt about around that time. -- --John R. Hall, ihuxu!jhall