Stealing Normality

Earlier this week, people in St. Petersburg were reminded again that amidst the natural beauty of Florida there are sociopaths that live among them. They learned that a troubled man shot his wife several times at home then put her in the trunk of his car, which he evidently intended to set the on fire. But then he also decided to drive to the Sunshine Bridge, where he stopped at the very top (190 feet above the water), lit the car on fire, and then jumped to his death. The car was left in flames on the bridge as he floated in the bay.

While I was driving on the Sunshine Bridge last night, I noticed that the bridge was partially closed as crews power-washed soot from the normally pristine concrete.  At the time, I didn’t know at what had occurred earlier in the day.   But I'm sure there were thousands of people that did; as they drove past the scorched roadway they were reminded that the world can be a dangerous place.  Families headed to Sanibel Island to look for shells, soccer moms and their kids, and retirees headed to Fort Meyers were all exposed to the pain of someone else’s reality.  And in the process had some of their own normality stolen by an unknown thief.

If a person has decided to take their own life, their actions are unbounded by our society’s moral conventions.  We've seen it at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and other bridges in other towns.  Perhaps the only threat that might exist for someone intent on taking their own life – and destroying others on their way out of it – is that there might be a punishment waiting for them in the next life.   If it were known that the sentence imposed by the next Judge would include a dive straight down to the deepest and most eternal depths - perhaps it would prevent some of these sociopaths from their descruction.