School shootings (not all of them by students), have a long history in the United States [1]. On January 29, 1979, Brenda Ann Spencer, then sixteen years old, became the villain of a particularly brutal incident where the obviously troubled young woman (who remains in life imprisonment in California), killed two people and injured at least eight more while shooting at a San Diego elementary school from her own window. When asked why she committed the crime, she stated, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day [2].”

Naturally, when faced with the threat of life imprisonment, the young woman, who showed no remorse whatsoever for her crimes, claimed that she was intoxicated and claimed that she was abused by her father, but nowhere has she been shown to actually take responsibility for her actions. Instead, she has tried to shift the blame to substances or other people for her obviously troubled state (which ought to have been obvious beforehand).

What makes this story remarkable is that it inspired a very beautiful (if tragic) song, “I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats [3]. The song hit #1 in England and won two Ivor Novello awards, and though it only hit #73 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979 it was the band’s only hit in the United States. It is, nonetheless, a hauntingly beautiful song [4] that has endured as a thoughtful musing on the horror of school violence, showing a strong humanitarian sense for the Boomtown Rats and their lead singer, a moody Irish young man by the name of Bod Geldorf.

Though the Boomtown Rats were a moderately successful band (with a couple of British #1’s), their lead singer Bob Geldorf has become vastly more famous as a pop humanitarian. This is a rich irony if one appreciates the career of the Boomtown Rats as a whole. When they came out in the late 1970’s, the Boomtown Rats’ first single, “Looking Out For No. 1,” showed a Generation X preoccupation with self-interest, and “Banana Republic” and “Rat Trap” bemoaned the dead-end misery of life in the Ireland of the time [5]. The name Boomtown Rats itself was an homage to gangs, as Bob Geldorf and his bandmates themselves felt very out of step with a corrupt and hostile world. Perhaps that is why they identified so strongly with similarly disaffected young woman who turned to violence instead of music.

What is striking, though, is that Bob Geldorf’s sensitivity to the suffering of others led him not to seek the death of others, but to seek an improvement of their state through his own bold generosity. Bob Geldorf has a lasting reputation for his efforts with Live Aid and Live 8 to provide for African victims of famine, along with Bono’s (of U2 fame) ONE organization seeking for debt relief for Africa. He is also a single father and a vocal proponent of Father’s rights. For all of his musical talents, it is Bob Geldorf’s humanitarianism and his sensitivity to the suffering of others, and his translation of sentiment into useful action, that is remembered (deservedly) the best about him.

Here is a young man who grew up hating the life of his homeland at the time in Ireland, and instead of pursuing self-destruction, he did something about it, creating lasting art and finding a better life for himself. And instead of thinking just about himself he then spent a great deal of time, most of his adult life in fact, making life better for other people. Here we see an example of the supreme achievement of an artist not only in making art but in shaping a world and making it at least a little bit better of a place. Bob Geldorf looked out for number one and then continued on to look out for others after him as well. For that he deserves to be respected and remembered fondly.

It is a shame that Brenda Ann Spencer was never able to turn her anger at being misunderstood and perhaps abused (a fate that is all too common in this evil world) into beautiful art. She was instead poisoned by her evil and sought to take others down with her into her cesspool of hatred and rage. In memorializing that senseless slaughter, pop humanitarian Bob Geldorf looked out for himself as a successful musician and also sought to understand and help the common human community he sees himself a part of to this day. We can choose to use our suffering to inspire us to greatness, or we can wallow in misery and learned helplessness. The responsibility is ours, for we ultimately bear responsibility for what we do with our experiences, whether we use them for good, as Bob Geldorf did, or for evil, as Brenda Ann Spencer did. We will be judged for how we choose to live.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Like_Mondays

[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kobdb37Cwc&ob=av3n

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boomtown_Rats_discography

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Geldof