When I first came to the US and observed all the rigmarole surrounding school buses, I was astounded. Here are the rules for my Indian friends reading pleasure:
I would see this and I would remember incidents from India where in school bus crashed or fell down a bridge. I would remember scenes of kids overloaded in autos and cycle rikshaws. I remembered an incident in Kanpur during my marriage where we were waiting at a railway crossing. I was in(on?) a cycle rikshaw and 5-6 school kids were on another. As is usual in India, people were tilting their vehicles to cross the line since the train did not seem to be arriving. The other rikshaw driver started tilting the rikshaw with the kids in it (they were really small). My heart just stopped because the kids were too young (in my opinion) to know just to hold on and not be afraid. My mind took over and I got down marched up to him and blasted him. He was a pretty decent guy and stopped and waited for the train. I say decent because generally I would have expected them to abuse a woman who dared raise her voice. Maybe he sensed that my voice was raised too high to be controlled. Anyway, although he desisted then, I am sure it would be a routine activity in the area.
So, I would compare the two worlds and I would feel better about moving here. I would think that at least my children would be safe.
Now, I realise how wrong I was. The shooting of 20 kids aged 5-7 years in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut has rudely awakened all of us. In India, we can ensure safety to some extent by spending more to ensure that school follows the basic regulations or drop/pick the kid yourself. Shooting events are quite common in the US but school kids? And this school was in an affluent neighbourhood so there is no convenient excuse of drugs and violence. Where does it stop? The worst part is knowing that guns will continue to be available to every Tom, Dick and Harry because it is their 'right' as per the constitution. A country which goes to such lengths to protect its borders and flights that it asks you to take off shoes and eat a portion of the kids food and makes you throw away water - does not think of security when legally giving out firearms to everyone? And given the gun lobby and the country's obsession with 'freedom' this is not going to change. I wonder why do you need guns when you have such a superb police force for law enforcement and protection. The people supposedly carrying guns for protection, who are they protecting themselves from? This country prides itself on keeping with the times and still they stick to the second amendment which legalised guns because the country was then in turmoil? Why not legalise nuclear and chemical weapons then?
As usual, the debate will shift focus from 'freedom of guns' to 'help for the emotionally disturbed, mentally ill'. Helping mental illness fine but why not just remove the access to guns and solve the problem? A mentally ill person without a gun can at the most kill one person with a knife or a blunt object. Nobody would be able to indiscriminately shoot innocent people because their parents did not love them as kids. What about the parents who do love their kids but will never see them grow up? People who say this is not the 'right solution' will only agree when their kid goes to school and does not come home. We do not have the luxury of right solution in a flawed world.
Now that I have kids of my own who are going to grow up in this environment, I have been struggling with this tragedy. I lie in bed and am not able to stop myself from thinking that this could happen to my Beth and Simba. I do not think I could go on living after that. I simply cannot imagine what the parents must be going through. What would have been their last interaction with their innocent kids? A hug? A scolding to finish breakfast quickly? Plans for decorating the christmas tree? Practising christmas carols as I do with my kids? Can it be possible for any parent to accept their child will never come home again? That they were victims of some mental illness and not gun abuse?
For once God, forgive all the fights I have had with you, and help those parents be strong.
- School zones have a much lower speed limit of 20-25 mph (very very slow) for a couple of hours in the morning and afternoon when the school convenes and breaks. These limits are enforced very strictly.
- The route for road test for driving license always has a school zone part where you have to slow down.
- If you are behind a school bus and it stops to pick/drop kids, you have to STOP. Complete stop, not slow down even if you are in a different lane (forget thinking about changing lanes and overtaking). It is a funny sight to see all vehicles in all lanes stopped.
- If you are driving on the other side of the road when a school bus stops, you have to stop if the road does not have a divider - even though you may be 5 lanes away from the bus.
I would see this and I would remember incidents from India where in school bus crashed or fell down a bridge. I would remember scenes of kids overloaded in autos and cycle rikshaws. I remembered an incident in Kanpur during my marriage where we were waiting at a railway crossing. I was in(on?) a cycle rikshaw and 5-6 school kids were on another. As is usual in India, people were tilting their vehicles to cross the line since the train did not seem to be arriving. The other rikshaw driver started tilting the rikshaw with the kids in it (they were really small). My heart just stopped because the kids were too young (in my opinion) to know just to hold on and not be afraid. My mind took over and I got down marched up to him and blasted him. He was a pretty decent guy and stopped and waited for the train. I say decent because generally I would have expected them to abuse a woman who dared raise her voice. Maybe he sensed that my voice was raised too high to be controlled. Anyway, although he desisted then, I am sure it would be a routine activity in the area.
So, I would compare the two worlds and I would feel better about moving here. I would think that at least my children would be safe.
Now, I realise how wrong I was. The shooting of 20 kids aged 5-7 years in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut has rudely awakened all of us. In India, we can ensure safety to some extent by spending more to ensure that school follows the basic regulations or drop/pick the kid yourself. Shooting events are quite common in the US but school kids? And this school was in an affluent neighbourhood so there is no convenient excuse of drugs and violence. Where does it stop? The worst part is knowing that guns will continue to be available to every Tom, Dick and Harry because it is their 'right' as per the constitution. A country which goes to such lengths to protect its borders and flights that it asks you to take off shoes and eat a portion of the kids food and makes you throw away water - does not think of security when legally giving out firearms to everyone? And given the gun lobby and the country's obsession with 'freedom' this is not going to change. I wonder why do you need guns when you have such a superb police force for law enforcement and protection. The people supposedly carrying guns for protection, who are they protecting themselves from? This country prides itself on keeping with the times and still they stick to the second amendment which legalised guns because the country was then in turmoil? Why not legalise nuclear and chemical weapons then?
As usual, the debate will shift focus from 'freedom of guns' to 'help for the emotionally disturbed, mentally ill'. Helping mental illness fine but why not just remove the access to guns and solve the problem? A mentally ill person without a gun can at the most kill one person with a knife or a blunt object. Nobody would be able to indiscriminately shoot innocent people because their parents did not love them as kids. What about the parents who do love their kids but will never see them grow up? People who say this is not the 'right solution' will only agree when their kid goes to school and does not come home. We do not have the luxury of right solution in a flawed world.
Now that I have kids of my own who are going to grow up in this environment, I have been struggling with this tragedy. I lie in bed and am not able to stop myself from thinking that this could happen to my Beth and Simba. I do not think I could go on living after that. I simply cannot imagine what the parents must be going through. What would have been their last interaction with their innocent kids? A hug? A scolding to finish breakfast quickly? Plans for decorating the christmas tree? Practising christmas carols as I do with my kids? Can it be possible for any parent to accept their child will never come home again? That they were victims of some mental illness and not gun abuse?
For once God, forgive all the fights I have had with you, and help those parents be strong.
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