dharun ravi

i have always been fascinated by people walking out of courtrooms. the expressions on a person after someone else has decided their fate. this is Dharun Ravi. I did not follow his case and I had not heard of him before today. in 2010 he set up a webcam to catch his gay roommate kissing a dude. somehow the roommate found out, freaked out, and jumped off of the  George Washington bridge. today, Dharun was sentenced to 30 days in prison plus a number of fines and remediation, etc. etc. second degree bias intimidation.

just look at the kids face. think about what might be going through his head. one stupid mistake he made while he was a freshman at Rutgers and now the rest of his life has been tilted off it's axis. god he wishes he could take it back, what he would do I'm sure.

he didn't think twice when he was doing it. just a stupid fucking joke, maybe he'd show a couple of his friends for a laugh or whatever - i don't know what the kid was thinking - except the whole thing blew up in his face. how many times have I done something this stupid? twice as stupid? I've driven a twenty-seater bus while blacked out drunk. broken into sewer systems and climbed on top of hospitals. why hasn't something like this happened to me yet? how long until it does?

it just seems like there's huge amounts of gunpowder in even our smallest actions and if we don't wise up to it quick we might end up with some life-altering burns. or maybe that's just as old person's way of thinking, maybe I'm getting old. this kids face makes me sad though, i wonder what he thinks about.