Is The Stress Of Our Economy Causing Crimes?
Written by: Tom Sawyer
6 separate suicide notes. That is how many notes Christopher Woods left before shooting his 3 kids, his wife and then himself. Woods left individual suicide notes to his wife and each of the three children, expressing his sorrow and love. I don’t understand why he even wrote those notes since they will, unfortunately, never read them. Why would someone do something like this?
Woods was apparently depressed due to debt – $460,000 of debt from mortgages and credit cards. In fact, Woods worked as a salesman making $97,000 a year, which is great. Again, what would cause someone to kill a 5-year-old, a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old?
Woods had no record of domestic violence, which I take to mean this was out of his character. Unfortunately, Woods obviously thought his situation (debt) was beyond hope. Look at the people across the street, next to you at work (if you are so fortunate) and at the grocery store. If Woods’ acts are any indication, any of us could snap under the pressure of the recession and start a killing spree.
If a list was made up of things NOT to do when times are tough, I think number one could be to not commit murder and/or suicide. I think a closer look around would have made Woods realize things are tough all over and most of us aren’t making $97,000 during these hard times.
This is just one example of what is going on with our society, but another reminder that we have to find hope somewhere. We could look to God, we could look to our families or we could look within. The main thing is to support each other somehow and try to reduce this kind of news. I’ve often heard people talk about the tough times in our own backyard in protest to what we do abroad and I think recent events have shown that to be somewhat legitimate. Sure, we have problems with enemies who are foreign, but we also have problems with enemies who are domestic and those enemies could be everyday people who think all hope is lost.
I don’t necessarily have an answer – it seems like we are throwing money at too many things – but something needs to happen positively. We have got to stop all this senseless killing.
Tags: Father kills family because of debt/depression, Is all hope gone during the recession?
