11 Years/Hell Week

CAUTION: This blog contains unhappy material. Read at your own discretion. Thanks:)

11 years ago today, two students at Columbine High School commited what was then the worst school shooting in American History. Even after 11 years, the impact of that fateful day still shows its effects. In fact, April 20, 1999 is the final day in what I have dubbed Hell Week. It seems to me that, regardless of the year or the incident, something tragic tends to happen between April 15 and 20. Here are some of the tragic events occuring during this disastrous week:

April 15:

4/15/1865 - President Abraham Lincoln succumbs to gunshot wound from previous evening, shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth.
4/15/1912 - The RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic, resulting in 1,517 lives lost.
4/15/1989 - 96 Liverpool FC fans lost their lives in what is called a human crush.

April 16:

4/16/1947 - Texas City, Texas catches fire after a freighter in port suddenly explodes, killing almost 600.
4/16/2007 - Seung-Hui Cho goes on the worst killing spree in American History at Virginia Tech, killing 32 and injuring 23 before committing suicide.

April 18:

4/18/1906 - The SF earthquake and fire destroys most of San Fransisco.

April 19:

4/19/1993 - A 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas ends with 81 people losing their lives in the fiery siege of the building. 20 of the deceased were children.
4/19/1995 - Timothy McVeigh commits the worst domestic terrorist attack in US History, bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 - 19 of whom were children under the age of 6 - and injuring more than 680.

April 20:

4/20/1914 - During a coal miner's strike in Colorado, the Ludlow Massacre ensued, killing 45.
4/20/1999 - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold committed what was then the worst school shooting on US soil, killing 13 and injuring 24 before each committing suicide.
4/20/2007 - A man with a gun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center before taking a hostage's life, along with his own.

These are the many reasons why this week always sticks out in the back of my mind as the worst week of the year. Even so, there is still good that happens during Hell Week, and that's why every year, on April 20, I listen to the song The Change, by Garth Brooks. Brooks actually released this song specifically for the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing. It always seems to be a good song to remind that, regardless of what evil is upon us, we can still be strong to overcome its adversity.



Here are the lyrics as well.

One hand
Reaches out
And pulls a lost soul from harm
While a thousand more go unspoken for
They say what good have you done
By saving just this one
It's like whispering a prayer
In the fury of a storm

And I hear them saying you'll never change things
And no matter what you do it's still the same thing
But it's not the world that I am changing
I do this so this world will know
That it will not change me

This heart
Still believes
The love and mercy still exist
While all the hatred rage and so many say
That love is all but pointless in madness such as this
It's like trying to stop a fire
With the moisture from a kiss

And I hear them saying you'll never change things
And no matter what you do it's still the same thing
But it's not the world that I am changing
I do this so this world will know
That it will not change me

As long as one heart still holds on
Then hope is never really gone

I hear them saying you'll never change things
And no matter what you do it's still the same thing
But it's not the world that I am changing
I do this so this world we know
Never changes me

What I do is so
This world will know
That it will not change me