![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
parasitegirlI haven't commented on the recent knife attack in Akihabara.
It was horrible, yes, but such things are still rare here. Many co-workers think it is terrifying and that it has changed their ideas about how safe Japan is, how safe they are. I'm from America. I'm an American woman. As much as I spend a certain amount of energy telling Japanese people that America isn't THAT scary, the knowledge that walking down a street, even a busy street, might not always be safe is part of who I am. I don't worry about it, it's just something I know to be true. Random violence and targeted violence happens. There are things you can do to be aware of your surroundings and situations, but nothing is 100%. You can only worry so much, some things are out of your control.
The attack didn't kill or wound anyone I know. All my geeks are in America and not currently visiting Japan/Akihabara. It did, however, kill a recent graduate from the public school system I work at.
The connection is close enough to remind me that these things happen...but not enough to feel the impact of it.
It reminds me of Jerry, my best landlord ever. Jerry was a nice man in MIlwaukee who made me steamed veggies when I was sick and who moonlighted as a low-level pro-wrestler. He knew all the folks in his building: the jazz pianist who lived next door (my bathroom sounded great ), the stoner upstairs who loved anime...all. A few years before I moved to Milwaukee he had lost a tennent ...to serial killer Jeffery Dahmer.
I remember talking about the Dahmer days with a female teacher of mine from MIAD. She told me about the time when Dahmer was as of yet unknown, but the disappearances of young men was being felt...and our school was in the gayer area of Milwaukee, so it was felt...she remembered seeing male students being hesitant about going out to their cars or apartments alone after dark and other small issues of vulnerability American women are raised to be aware of but (muggings and bad neighborhoods aside) most men aren't.
Between Dahmer one year and the cryptosporidian problem the next, there was a certain awareness of human vulnerability.
Mmmmmm. Rumors of a boil water advisory...there are certain rumors worth paying attention to.
It was horrible, yes, but such things are still rare here. Many co-workers think it is terrifying and that it has changed their ideas about how safe Japan is, how safe they are. I'm from America. I'm an American woman. As much as I spend a certain amount of energy telling Japanese people that America isn't THAT scary, the knowledge that walking down a street, even a busy street, might not always be safe is part of who I am. I don't worry about it, it's just something I know to be true. Random violence and targeted violence happens. There are things you can do to be aware of your surroundings and situations, but nothing is 100%. You can only worry so much, some things are out of your control.
The attack didn't kill or wound anyone I know. All my geeks are in America and not currently visiting Japan/Akihabara. It did, however, kill a recent graduate from the public school system I work at.
The connection is close enough to remind me that these things happen...but not enough to feel the impact of it.
It reminds me of Jerry, my best landlord ever. Jerry was a nice man in MIlwaukee who made me steamed veggies when I was sick and who moonlighted as a low-level pro-wrestler. He knew all the folks in his building: the jazz pianist who lived next door (my bathroom sounded great ), the stoner upstairs who loved anime...all. A few years before I moved to Milwaukee he had lost a tennent ...to serial killer Jeffery Dahmer.
I remember talking about the Dahmer days with a female teacher of mine from MIAD. She told me about the time when Dahmer was as of yet unknown, but the disappearances of young men was being felt...and our school was in the gayer area of Milwaukee, so it was felt...she remembered seeing male students being hesitant about going out to their cars or apartments alone after dark and other small issues of vulnerability American women are raised to be aware of but (muggings and bad neighborhoods aside) most men aren't.
Between Dahmer one year and the cryptosporidian problem the next, there was a certain awareness of human vulnerability.
Mmmmmm. Rumors of a boil water advisory...there are certain rumors worth paying attention to.
