Who's Going to Win?

I was reading a blog, Catman's Litterbox, and he reminded me of a game that students played when I first started teaching, Assassin.

The rules were fairly simple.  You bought into the game with some cash. Names of the participants were drawn and assigned to be assassinated by other players.  Slowly the "living" players would be whittled down to the winner, who would collect the pot of cash.  At first the boundaries were virtually unlimited, but the school put a end to that as classes were being interrupted with assassinations. Young people are smart though, and the school was made "off limits" and the game went on.  Assassin was active for a few years in our town.

I remember at the time having some envy as I wished I could participate; I dreamed of winning the game and having money to spend. I figured as an adult I could outsmart the students and be mercenary enough to come out on top.  I quietly listened to the students talk to other students about who had recently been "killed" and their speculation about who was going to win.

Two events happened because of this game that caused me to rethink the innocence of all of the players and the suitability of the entire adventure.  One night two "assassins" sneaked up to a house and tried to enter in the dark to "kill" their next person.  Unfortunately for them they were greeted by an armed father with near disastrous results.

The second event happened at baseball practice one day. Two individuals interrupted practice to talk to one of our players. Besides being told multiple times to stop, to leave and to talk after practice, the intruders refused.  They were looking for the person holding the pot of cash and one of them was the "winner" of the most recent Assassin game.  A baseball player afterwards mentioned that they needed the money to buy drugs. Not that baseball is so important, but the insistence of those young men to get their question answered was an object lesson as to what people looking for drugs will do.

At the time I had an epiphany as to what self-motivated people with low morals and high greed will do. In reflecting about the "winner" and the relative goodness of other students I knew that were playing the game, I concluded that  many innocents had been taken of their money.

Reading the blog this morning and remembering my thoughts of that long ago game made me reflect again about humanity and what may happen when society breaks down.  Some innocent and good folks will be lost to self-centered, greedy assailants.  Some will do what ever they can to get what they want.

For me, the questions to answer are, how much have I changed from that envious young teacher eavesdropping on students, and how have I prepared to put into action the lessons that life has given me?