32

A guy with a broken foot was in my taxi, whom I had picked up on Polk Street. We were listening to a hip-hop station, 94.9. A song ended and a female voice came on. It said

"We just confirmed about the Virgina Tech shootings that there are 32 people dead."

Then the next song came on. This was news to me. I had been driving a taxi all morning and not been listening to the news. I said to the guy with the broken foot

"Did you just hear that on the radio?"

"Yep," he said with resignation.

"Did you already know about this?"

"Yep."

"It's horrible. That's a lot of people dead."

"Yeah."

"I think it's the most people dead in a shooting like this."

"There was that one--"

"Columbine?"

"Yeah."

"I think this is even more people dead than Columbine."

"That was a high school, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. And this is a university."

"I guess that still doesn't make people grow up."

"I guess not," I said.