Doom

This week a 15 year old girl was shot in the head. The bullet exploded leaving her in a medically induced coma. Was she in a fight, was she doing something wrong? The only thing she is guilty of was trying to survive in a world of doom. She was caught in crossfire, hit with a bullet that was for someone else. This gunfight happened during after school hours. Kids were everywhere when a bunch of idiots decided it was time for a gunfight. She may never regain her full sense of self, she may lose everything she has ever learned. She might have to be treated like a baby until she can learn all over again. Fifteen, probably thinking about boys gossiping with her friends and now she has lost it all. With losing a part of her life who's knows the people she might lose as well. Yes now she is surrounded by the power of love and prayer BUT what happens once she gets better. She might not have the huge circle following her, just another story of the doom that happens in NYC.
She lives in the South Bronx, an area known for its criminal activity. Kids are carrying guns and being thugs before they even leave junior high and that's only if they even make it through that. Everyone wants to be a thug these days and prove that they are "the man". They want to fit in with the misfits that they think will have their back. The ones they think will visit them in jail after they get twenty to life for killing or assault or whatever other bullshit they have done. Live by the gun die by the gun is a saying I've often heard. What does it mean? Does it mean because you are born into a world of crime you might succumb to it? It's a shame, it really is. I know it's no excuse to not have children BUT it makes you scared to bring them into a world like this.
When that poor girl went to school that morning I highly doubt her mother expected what happened. What it must feel like to receive that phone call, to see her lifeless body? The pain and anguish she must feel and the steps she has to take next to make sure her daughter will survive.
I thought this story was horrifying enough UNTIL I read that the shooter, who has since confessed, is only SIXTEEN. He is just a teenager with a baby face and killer mentality. He wanted to settle a riff that his OLDER brother had in jail. He wanted to show his brother I guess that he could handle the "business". Well he handled it all right by now landing himself in jail and now him and his brother can really be together. Sixteen and he has ended whatever life he would've had. He let himself fall into the doom and grime of this city. He allowed the city to take over him. His heart his soul his mind. The city allowed him to fall, his parents allowed him to fail, and his brother encouraged him to do wrong. Three strikes against him and now it's done.
Fifteen year old victim sixteen year old murderer. Once strangers now forever bonded by the Doom.