Columbine Anniversary

[rainbowbob]

Leonard Pitts Jr wrote an article on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre. This is an excerpt [With my comments bracketed in blue]

Ten years ago Monday, two boys, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, walked into Columbine High in Littleton, Colo. and unleashed hell, killing 13 people, wounding 23 and then committing suicide. In the process, they also unleashed a firestorm of speculation from media-appointed experts, jostling to answer what was suddenly the most important question in the world:

"Why, Lord? Why?"

They told us video games did it. They said years of bullying did it. They said being ostracized did it. They said violent movies did it. They said bad parenting did it. [And...they said easy access to guns did it.]

I said evil did it.

That observation, made in this space, was not especially popular. Small wonder. What do you say after you say evil did it? The very idea stops the discussion, forecloses the hopeful notion that there is something we can do, some measure we can take, to keep this obscenity from happening again. If you say bullying did it, you can seek ways to curtail bullying. If you say video games did it, you can pass laws to curtail video games. [And, if you say guns did it, you can pass more restrictive gun laws.]

But how can you curtail evil? What law can do that? [None.]

And yet, here we are, 10 years out, and I find myself reading reports on the new scholarship that has sprung up around the Littleton massacre, including a book called "Columbine" by Dave Cullen. And the consensus seems to be that everything we thought we knew about why those boys did what they did is wrong.

Turns out they were not bullied. Nor were they outcasts. Nor were they unduly influenced by violent movies. Nor were their parents bad.

Evil. What an old-fashioned and uncomfortable concept. It's so unsatisfactory. No cause and effect to latch on to. No nuts and bolts solutions to apply.

Bad people do bad things. Good people must be prepared to recognize - and if possible - thwart evil.

We like simple answers to difficult problems.

This is a simple problem with a difficult answer.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

And gun free zones will only encourage more feasting by evil.

We pray each day that we are to be led from temptation and to be delivered from evil. It's not always gonna happen. Not in this world.

 

[Blackbeard]

I often disagree with Pitts on many things but once in a while he's dead-on right. This is one of those times.

 

[rbernie]

Great APS topic.