If tomorrow never comes

We've heard all about the Virginia Tech killings. We've seen the pictures, read the news. Felt that strange lump form in our throats. It has been called the worst gun rampage in US history, and quite rightly so. It didn't happen in a shadowy ally-way in the middle of the night.

The killer was not a drunk, forty-year-old, ex-Marine. It happened in broad daylight, in a campus. The killer was just a boy around my age. What went wrong?

It's a strange thing to wake up one morning, expecting your normal routine to unfold, and finding instead that you have to face a day in which your life suddenly takes a sharp turn for the worse. The young people at Virginia Tech probably partied the night before like other young people often do. Some probably had late nights. Others must have watched some TV. Laughed at some jokes.

They were sure to have had a few fights and disagreements with those they moved around with on campus during the course of the day. Most of them thought about their plans for the next week before going to bed; that date they were looking forward to over the weekend, maybe. Some girls decided what they'd wear in the morning; the jeans they wore on Friday with their favourite t-shirt. I'm sure many students left some things to be done in the morning – some laundry, a call to Mum – because they were too tired or too lazy to do those things before they went to bed. They could always do it tomorrow, they thought.
None of them had any idea what would happen in the morning. Some would never see tomorrow. Others would experience something that would change their perspectives forever.

Have you ever faced such a day? A day when things you thought only happened in books and movies stepped into your life in the realest ways possible? It may not have taken the form of a shooting. But perhaps it was a road accident, a suicide bomb. Things that have almost become commonplace on this island.

We don't need to look very far to find people who have seen violence first-hand. We live in a war torn nation after all. Our tomorrow isn't guaranteed, though living in Colombo, we have only seen and experienced the tip of this monstrous iceberg we call war. Others not so far away from us live a completely different kind of life that you and I can never truly identify with. It's way above us.

We've never had to face what these people face almost every day. Someone's going to go to bed tonight and will never see another day in his life. We don't have to know these people in order to be sensitive to their suffering. Aren't we all human? We live in a country of constant sadness, whether we are aware of it or not.

There is a time for fun and laughter, and a time to be serious. Yes, we must live for the day because we don't know if there'll be a tomorrow. But in living for today, we cannot forget that people suffer immensely right in front of our eyes.

We owe them our respect and sensitivity, notwithstanding their ethnicity, political opinion or social status. It's the least we can do. What happens in the distant, out-station, village can very well happen in your own neighborhood tomorrow, to your own family. What happened at Virginia Tech can unfold in your life too. It's not a joke when it happens to you. It's not something you'll 'get over'.

As young people, let's not sleep through this time when our world needs us most. Let's not be oblivious. Let's be all we can be; let's wake up and start to make our contribution to our collective tomorrow.