Ten years ago on this day, the mother of all school shootings put Columbine High School on the tragedy map. Like a bad repeat of the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 (also in April), both tragedies occurred just days before I went on a road trip (in 1995, it was from Norfolk VA to visit friends and family in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri; in 1999, it was from Provo UT to the Pacific Northwest to visit one of my best friends and to see if I wanted to live in this region someday). Both tragedies made me think a lot on the long road trips.
When school shootings happen, I always tire of hearing people ask "why?" Its a natural question, though, but kind of ridiculous. We live in a gun-obsessed society with violent movies, video games, and music. The social structure of high school is probably the most superficial you'll find in society. Who does the shootings? The loners, misfits, bullied. Why? Because they want other people to feel their pains. They lash out. People get shocked and ask why and cry a lot, but our society doesn't ever change. Obama gets elected president and there's a run on guns with ammunitions actually sold out and on back order in many places.
Guns. A false sense of power. So long as Americans love their guns, we shouldn't be shocked and ask "why?" and cry when more shootings happen (as this month has shown all over the country, with frustrated men externalizing their pains in deadly ways for others to feel).
Above are the photos of the students and teacher who lost their lives that day.
Though I lost interest in the Columbine massacre shortly after the event, I read in a recent article that there is a new, comprehensive book about the tragedy that clears up the myths that have developed. One of the shooters was a psychopath, the other was a follower who was capable of compassion. They weren't picked on, nor part of a "trenchcoat mafia." The leader of the duo thought he was God, who had the right to administer fatal judgment.
This past weekend, I finally finished reading Prophet of Death, about Jeffrey Lundgren, the former church member who formed a cult. It was a chilling read, especially when he claimed to his followers to be "God of the whole earth" who had the right to end human life for their sins (despite sinning himself, often far worse than his followers). I can't help but think how dangerous religious beliefs can be for people with psychological disorders. I will be writing a post soon about my thoughts on cults, especially in light of this book that I finished reading and the accusation by a former friend that I was "prone to join a cult" simply because I admitted admiring politicians like Gore and Obama.
Back to Columbine, though. A few years ago, I saw Gus Van Sant's film Elephant, which had a disclaimer that any resemblance to actual events was purely "coincidental." Yeah. Right. He basically followed the news accounts of the Columbine shooting. The only difference is, he filmed the movie in Portland, not Littleton, Colorado where the tragedy occurred. The film is horribly bad and dull. I've read in reviews that that was the point of his movie. You were lulled into the boring routine of the students and when the shooting happens, its truly shocking. I get it. But its still a boring and pointless movie to make.
One of the theories that came out of Columbine was that the shooters were influenced by Hitler. Considering how many deadly events occur around April 20th (Hitler's birthday), it makes you wonder if his soul is still wandering the earth looking for susceptible minds to influence towards deadly actions. In the past couple decades, on or around April 20th included Jeffrey Lundgren's murder of the Avery family in Kirtland OH in 1989, the Los Angeles riots in 1992, the Branch Davidian compound fire in 1993, the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Columbine High School in 1999, and the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007.
I shake my head wondering how ten years can pass by so quickly. The students who died that day were deprived of the joys of young adulthood, of self discovery, of possibility. All because some deranged loser with access to semi-automatic weapons thought he had the divine right to rid the world of people he considered losers. Another rumour at the time was that he was influenced by The Matrix movie, which was a major hit in the spring of 1999. I can see how the shoot-em-up scene in the lobby of a building could inspire certain psychopathic people into wanting to replicate it in reality. In the movie, the scene looked cool...but it was just a movie!
While the tragedy scars the people who witnessed it or were victimized by it, the rest of the world moves on to the next tragedy. Nothing ever seems to change. We are shocked, we cry, we chatter, then we resume our gun buying compulsions. Truly how many guns do people need to feel safe? I don't own a gun at all, yet I feel completely safe. I wish more Americans would ignore the media hype about these shootings. We need to do a better job with easing people's pains of an isolated, lonely existence. The lack of compassion in our society for those on the margins (those who don't fit in the school culture that values the jocks, cheerleaders, student council, and affluent kids). We just never know when a young mind will snap, causing blood to flow and tears to fall. We can do better than buying more guns. We must try.
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