kudos to one tree hill

i have been a committed one tree hill watcher since the second season, going on its seventh season, no episode will beat third season, episode 16...
http://www.thewb.com/video/12bcdefeb0/one-tree-hill/with-tired-eyes-tired-minds-tired-souls-we-slept
...aka, the school shooting. yes, i realize that it is just a drama that tries to bring in viewers, but this episode is real, riveting, and heartfelt. the writers also do a good job of bringing the viewers back to reality and letting us remember it is just a tv show, but the dialogue between the students and the shooter in the tutoring center is almost dead on to what goes through the minds of high schoolers.
the episode starts off with jimmy edwards talking about students at his school in a time capsule. he then sees fellow students messing with his locker, when he pulls out his gun and makes a single shot in brooke and peytons direction. the students go from having no worries to complete panic in 1.3 seconds. the school is then put on lock down.
a majority of the episode goes from the tutoring center where jimmy holds 7 hostages, the library were peyton and lucas are, the gym where the students can get picked up by their parents and outside the school where the police are.
out of these four locations, only one location is the breather for the episode reminding us that it is only a night drama on the cw, but the other three help us realize how much hate walks around the halls of our high schools and universities.

Jimmy Edwards: You really think I am the only one. Then ask yourself this. Have you ever treated someone like crap in this school or left anyone out? Have you ever broken up with someone in the time it takes to pass a note and disappear? Or talk trash behind their back? Or maybe you just ignored it all? You know why you worry about the big game or the prom or the bake sale for the pep club. You ask yourself that and then you tell me if there is anyone else out there.

the boy who played jimmy edwards deserves a freaking award, because throughout the entire episode, he isn't mean or cruel, he is sad and angry and more then he hates the other students, he hates himself. his facial expression throughout the episode is fright and sadness.
i wonder with all the school shootings that have happened in our life time, did anyone ever look at the faces of the shooters? i truely believe they aren't bad people, they just don't know what to do...now, it doesn't give them a right to do what they did, but think about what they are feeling.

Keith Scott: I'm not gonna leave you here son. I'm not gonna do that and i'll tell you why. Cause I've been there. I've bought the gun, and i planned on using it ok. I've been there. And I wanna tell you something, It gets better.
Jimmy Edwards: Not this, it can't.
Keith Scott: It does Jimmy. That pain in your stomach, that pain in your heart, it goes away. That voice in your head thats saying there's no way out, it's wrong Jimmy. Would you please, please just believe me. It gets better.
Jimmy Edwards: It won't! Not after this! I cant take this back! I can't erase this!
[starting to cry]
Jimmy Edwards: She's gonna die.
Keith Scott: You don't know that.
Jimmy Edwards: I just... I wanted... I wanted them to leave me alone. I just... I wanted them to like me.
Keith Scott: I understand son. It's what we all want. Thats all any of us want.
Jimmy Edwards: I'm not here... I'm not here.
Keith Scott: Jimmy please... it's gonna be ok son... it's gonna be ok.
Jimmy Edwards: [pounding on his chest] But it hurts! It hurts! It always hurts!
Keith Scott: I know... please... please...
Jimmy Edwards: I'm sorry...
[Points the gun to his chest and shoots himself]
Keith Scott: NOOOOO!

i think that scene explains itself, all anyone wants is to be liked and loved and wanted.
watching this episode was almost convicting for me, because it makes me realize my words and actions have an effect on people. i need to realize there are so many emotions running through peoples hearts that i need to treat them with respect and not judge them.

Abby Brown: What's wrong with you? He's just a kid. We're all just kids and we just have this life and the things you say and do, we feel that. How can you have so much hate in your heart? How can you act like it doesn't matter? It does matter. What happened to us? We're just kids. We can't be like this. It's not possible.

i think about high school and for me high school sucked, i hated going, i didn't care about my class and i put on the persona of, i wanted people to leave me alone, but deep down i wanted acceptance, but not till i got to college did i realize, what happens in high school is extremely important. the experiences we have, the crap all of us have to go through, it sticks with us, but there is a quote in the episode that made me realize it is only a blip of the rest of our lives.

Rachel Gattina: 700 days. High School, out of 20 or 30 thousand, can't you see past that. It's only 700 days

Jimmy follows with this,

Jimmy Edwards: How many of those days do I get back? Do I get back the days I got spit on, or the day I learned to look at the floor when I walk the halls, or how about the day, my dad came to pick me up and saw me getting my ass kicked in the quad and realized his son is a loser. You never look in your fathers eyes when he realizes that. Do I get that day back?...
This is the most any of us have talked in 4 years, if i didn't have this gun, it never would have happened.


which brings me to the quote that mouth said,

Marvin "Mouth" McFadden: It's not suppose to be this way. The artists, and the scientists, and the poets - none of them fit in at 17. We're suppose to get passed it. Adults - they see kids killing kids, and they know it's a tragedy because they used to be those kids - the bullies, and the beaten, and the loners. We're supposed to get passed it. You're supposed to live long enough to take it back. Just take it back.

adults wonder about our generation, the apathy for politics, the bullying, the lack of awareness when it comes to other people. we are selfish and stubborn. when we video tape 7 girls beating the crap out of another girl, or record the shots made at V-Tech, we have cheerleaders in texas who think they rule the school because they think they are better then everyone else. no wonder adults think poorly on our generation. but do you think also, our generation had to grow-up to fast, do you think the our parents generation and their parents generation put to much pressure on us because people expect more out of us? i have no idea.

Peyton Sawyer: We had a snow day. Sixth grade, do you remember? It was like this whole other world just came in overnight and took ours away. Brooke, she came over and we made a snowfort... with a tunnel. And we stayed in there all day. It seemed so safe, like everything was okay. Like everything our world was about to become, maybe we could just stop it and stay little kids for one more day. But then it got cold, kinda like now. They're gonna come now. All of them. The reporters and the psychologists and the analysts. And the so-called experts. And they're gonna try and make sense of this. But they're not gonna be able to. And even if we do make it out of here, we're always gonna carry it with us. Its never gonna be the same.

The media has an effect, our parents have an effect, we are a generation of technology and do our parents realize the effects the media has on us? does the media realize the effects of what they put in their newspapers, their magazines, and their news coverages?

Reporter: Does that warm your heart? You think America would tune in for that every night?
Brooke: Have you seen the ratings for 7th Heaven
Reporter: we're a society obsessed with tragedy Brooke, so, if esaminging tragedy makes me part of the problem, then so be it, but let me ask you something, how much time have you spent with Jimmy Edwards in the last 4 years? So, maybe I'm not the only one who should be ashamed.

don't get me wrong, there is some truth to this conversation, but for brooke, who is only 17 can adults really expect her to realizewhat her actions do? i mean, i guess they can, but they should never tell our generation that we should be ashamed of something that we really don't know anything about. i don't think high school students or even college students wake up in the morning and say, 'well, there is going to be a school shooting today, i should be ashamed of myself.' and that is what adults do to our generation, they expect us to have the same mind set as them, so for the question, did our generation have to grow up faster then others? yes, we did.

Lucas ends with a few lines in the episode that make you sit there at the end of the episode and already we have to soak in what just happened in those last 43 minutes, but then lucas says this,

Lucas Scott: Does this darkness have a name? This cruelty, this hatred, how did it find us? Did it steal into our lives or did we seek it out and embrace it? What happened to us that we now send our children into the world like we send young men to war, hoping for their safe return, but knowing that some would be lost along the way. When did we lose our way? Consumed by the shadows. Swallowed whole by the darkness. Does this darkness have a name? Is it your name?

this episode is ridiculous in that it is really real, we grow up in a society that we only think about ourselves and we never truly realize our words have consequences, it never really sinks in until someone brings a gun into a school and that gun is the proof of our actions.

Jimmy Edwards: What are you doing? you said you didn't have a phone, who'd you call? They better not come in here...I should have known it was all about the gun. So, what, do I have to pull the trigger again for you to take me seriously?

so, kudos to one tree hill, for opening the eyes of their viewers to the things that have happened in our generation. and teaching us the only way to fix the hate in our generation is to be kind.