All people are capable of killing. To deny this is ignorant. We all have a dark side within us. Some have to it closer to the surface than others. Some are always tormented by the good and evil within themselves. Some do not even know the difference.

Have you opened your paper lately? Recently a man shot his ex-girlfriend -- mother of 2 of his children -- in front of a school bus while his own children and other children watched. Two of the couple's own children held their mother's hand as she laid there and died.

A few weeks ago a man walked into a business, asked to see his ex-girlfriend (wife?) and was shown to her office. He then proceeded to stab her repeatedly, killing her. Afterward, he sat down and waited for the police to arrive. He does not want to defend his actions in court; he has asked to just be killed because that is what he believes he deserves.

What possesses someone to stalk, terrorize or kill an ex-girlfriend/wife/whatever? I do not understand this. To me, life is too short to waste on someone who wants nothing to do with you. Yet, it happens. We not only kill ex-lovers, ex-employers, but also innocent bystanders in fits of rage. What drives a person to this? I do not think there is a simple answer.

Some people are born with violent tendencies, some are driven to it. The ones that show a violent nature are usually ignored, shoved aside, or the tendencies for violence is written off with excuses. Those driven to violence are the most difficult to understand. They often present themselves to the world as someone who would never do this. They are your friends; your next door neighbor; the co-worker sitting next to you.

How could, a seemingly "normal" person, suddenly kill someone?

Then again, how can this not happen? We live in a society where the average person is considered nothing. You are a number, a statistic, a blotch on some piece of paper. What matters is the amount of money you have. It matters "who you know" or "what you do," not who you are -- you, the person. What can you do for me? If you are not an asset to someone, you tend to get written off. We live in a rat race, where only the "important" people are worth our time. The "nobody" means nothing to no one.

But even the very successful people do not receive a break in society's eyes. Their lives are forever under scrutiny to the rest of the world. It does not matter that all of us at one point have made mistakes. If you are "important" we must tell the world about your mistakes, heaven forbid that you are only human. It also makes us feel better to see someone else in pain and ridicule. It makes our own pain seem less important. We are pressured to be more then we are or even want to be. We are told over and over we are not good enough. Very few of us are able to step back and say, "I am good enough." We have been to conditioned to believe that our worth is only as good as others see it.

Yet, the question gets asked: Why? How could he go over the edge and kill someone like that?

As you read Carl Salonen's story, think about it. His fiction is a reality. Will we ever be willing to take that step back and start caring as individuals for the individual? Will we take the time to unravel the complexities of life that to some is just too much to take? Will we ever stop expecting others to be more then they are so that they can just be who they are instead of manufactured beings trying to fit into what they see they have to be, to be accepted?

I hope so. I hope as people of this planet we stop expecting everyone to be the person we want them to be and accept them for who they are. Not everyone is strong, not everyone succeeds, not everyone has someone special in their lives, not everyone wants to. This does not make them less then anyone else. It only makes them who they are. That should be good enough, not a failure in life.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Purr. You may notice some changes here and there. All of us have been working hard to bring you a Purr you will enjoy reading. Let us know what you think. Your opinion does count.

--Lynn Beck, Literary Editor, LBeckWorld homepages