When Hell Finally Froze Over

Prologue

It started in the year 1999. Well, at least it seemed that way to me. I’m sure others would argue about this claiming it started long before this. And perhaps they are right. But this is my story.

Of course there were other things that came before, like the Unabomber and the Green River Killer. But those didn’t seem to bother me the same way.

Don’t get me wrong, they were horrible and disgusted me just like many others. But the ones before didn’t have the same effect on me. Maybe it was just before my time or I just never paid attention to those kind of situations before because I was too young and naive to really understand at the time. I didn’t realize what was going on around me.

But for me, this is really when all the trouble started. When I started to notice the world around me and the things that were starting to slowly spiral out of control… The beginning of the end.

I was in my film class, senior year in high school, when the Columbine shooting happened. On April 20, 1999 two high school seniors walked into their school carrying guns. They killed 12 students and a teacher. There were multiple injuries by the time the cops showed up. At some point both shooters committed suicide in the library. I also heard there was a failed bombing involved, but I never got the full information on that. I just know there could’ve been a lot more people hurt or dead.

All I remember from that morning is my teacher coming in. She looked really upset, and then told our senior class that a couple of seniors in Colorado had killed a bunch of students before they killed themselves. They told us there would be councilors available for those of us who needed it. I didn’t see a councilor, but I talked about it with my friends. It was unbelievable that students our age were going around killing people. None of us understood how they could do that!

The whole country mourned that day. I went home and cried to my mother and she just held me telling me things would get better. I believed her…

We thought it would be an isolated incident… But it wasn’t. There were multiple copycat shootings, starting with Heritage High School in Conyers, Georgia in May; Deming Middle School in November; Fort Gibson Middle in December… After that I think many of us got desensitized to the school shootings. I know I couldn’t handle hearing about another one, but there have been more than 400 school shootings since Columbine. Still, each one hurt.

There were politicians calling for stricter gun laws. They claimed that if they took away the guns, this would not have happened. No one needed guns anymore because they were dangerous. They were calling to take away the right to defend ourselves, even though most of the people with guns don’t go around shooting people.

They didn’t seem to realize that the people who have guns legally are not the ones you should be worried about. It’s the ones who get them illegally that you need to watch out for. The bad ones will always find a way to get what they want. They shouldn’t take the guns from people who use them for hunting or protecting their families.

What would happen if only the military had guns? Well... People would get creative in their terror attacks. People who want to inflict pain will find a way. Guns or no guns.

But then in 2001... Well no one could have predicted what happened. The whole year just sucked.

I cried when my college history teacher came in and informed us that on the east coast there had been multiple attacks on the twin towers in New York, and one plane had come down on the way to the Pentagon. Everything was so sketchy, we really didn’t understand what was going on. All we knew was there were many people who would not be returning home that night.

Nobody knew about the heroes that were working behind the scenes to protect us. Not until everything came to light. That small sliver of humanity gave hope that not all was lost. That things could get better now.

Then there were the lock-downs. Everything just froze. You couldn’t go anywhere. If you lived in another country, you were out of luck. Many families had been separated unless you drove. Everyone was scared of each other. There was so much hate building around. No one trusted anyone anymore. That might have been the most depressing thing, come to think of it.

And every communication was monitored if you had a loved one overseas. People fighting wars, trying to find justice where all monitored to make sure they were not traitors or terrorists. Letters, emails, phone calls… I honestly don’t know if any of it was useful.

Then there were the anthrax attacks. It was like a double whammy. People were scared to open their mail. Nobody knew what was going on. It just showed up. People started panicking. Panic is never a good thing, it just causes more chaos and unrest.

Then there was the failed shoe bombing. That was weird… Who puts a bomb in their shoe? The bombers either kept getting weirder or just dumber. They may think they are clever, but really, what purpose does terrorism have? Only to create fear. Fear only creates more fear and distrust... When what we really needed was love and understanding.

Weapons of mass destruction were the new thing. It got hard to watch the news, knowing there were many innocent people who had their lives destroyed. There were children who had nothing to do with the wars, and they couldn’t be saved.

Then there was Hurricane Katrina. The worst natural disaster the United States had had in ages. That was the first of many natural disasters. Each one seemed to be worse than the previous ones. There were wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes all over the world. Why didn’t we see it then?

And still, the violence continued. Hate built and prejudices grew stronger.

There were multiple suicide bombings and car bombings moving throughout the whole world. There was even a pregnant woman with a bomb strapped to her body. There is no way anything could be scarier than that. Nothing, not even fiction, was scarier than what was happening in real life.

There were many wars going on throughout the world all at the same time. I honestly lost track... I didn’t want to see it anymore! I just wanted it all to stop, but I knew it wouldn’t. I knew things would only get worse before they could be better.

And then there were the riots and Black Lives Matter. Of course they matter! But so does every other color, but they didn’t seem to care about anybody else but them. They didn’t care that they were hurting their fellow man. They only brought more separation than they created togetherness. It was only chaos and more hate, but they didn’t see it.

And the COVID 19 hit the world and once again, everything came to a standstill. Everyone was dying. It had no prejudice of whom to kill. It didn’t matter if they were young or old, male or female. Rich or poor. It just killed equally. Many thought it was the end of the world.

Everyone was locked away from their loved ones. They couldn’t visit. They lost the human contact the world revolves around. We were told to stay six feet away from everyone. Not to touch anyone. Not to hug anyone... I think we lost part of ourselves through the plague. Most people turned to computers and electronics instead of face to face communication.

But we made it through. Things were finally starting to get better. We were getting back to normal life. We could be in the same room with friends and family once again. We thought we were safe. It was all over…

But we were wrong.