Columbine and Gen Why: 10 Years Later | Newsweek Books

The Columbine Generation

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Even worse, it's a tragedy that refuses to go away. Seung-Hui Cho, who in 2007 killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, was heavily influenced by Columbine. In a letter he wrote, he called Harris and Klebold "martyrs." A year ago I went to Oxnard, Calif., to cover a junior-high-school shooting in which a 14-year-old boy shot his 15-year-old classmate in the head. As I interviewed kids, school violence seemed like a matter-of-fact part of their lives. It was tragic, they said, but somehow not unexpected. The word came up time after time: Columbine. That's exactly what Harris and Klebold wanted—to be famous. They envisioned themselves as stars, in a pre-"American Idol" era. They even debated who would make the movie of their lives—Tarantino or Spielberg. What they got, what we all got, was that horrible scene of students running for their lives. For many of my peers, and for me, it's a scene that never fades to black.

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I was in public school when prayer was a part of our daily routine. I say routine because that was what it had become. You said the pledge of allegiance and the Lord's prayer every day. As a matter of routine. I'm not against prayer in school, but I am against it as a matter of routine. To blame the removal of a rote mantra, done as a matter of routine, for what has happened in our schools, is blasphemy to a living God who seeks intimacy with us; not endless recitation. The Pharisees of the Christian Right can blame themselves as much as Atheistic norming. In the preceeding verses from the Bible that the Lord's prayer is taken from, Jesus warns against making prayer routine. Maybe God took prayer out of school because of the mockery it had become? I see the pain in these articles and comments, and the question that seems to arise is not does God exist, but does a loving, caring God exist? Pain cannot be factored out of life, but neither can the Hope that comes from feeling God in your life, not just intellectualizing God. If you lose Faith, seek Hope, which may be found in the Love that is in the world. No one, whether armed with shotguns, or fanatical rhetoric, can kill the Love that is all around us, if we choose to look for it. The crazies win if we abandon that search. I'm not going to let them dictate who I am. Please don't let them do that to you...

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Posted By: vstillwell @ 04/20/2009 1:49:20 PM

So, who's against the ban on assault weapons? Oh, yeah, the rednecks want everyone packing. That's right.
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Posted By: shoemaker @ 04/20/2009 12:46:41 PM

Consider this harrylogy: all your vigilance hasn't eliminated the threat to your bloodthirsty lifestyle. You Neanderthals just like walking around with one hand in your ammo pouch and the other one on your GUN...
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Posted By: shoemaker @ 04/19/2009 2:03:10 PM

I was in public school when prayer was a part of our daily routine. I say routine because that was what it had become. You said the pledge of allegiance and the Lord's prayer every day. As a matter of routine. I'm not against prayer in school, but I am against it as a matter of routine. To blame the removal of a rote mantra, done as a matter of routine, for what has happened in our schools, is blasphemy to a living God who seeks intimacy with us; not endless recitation. The Pharisees of the Christian Right can blame themselves as much as Atheistic norming. In the preceeding verses from the Bible that the Lord's prayer is taken from, Jesus warns against making prayer routine. Maybe God took prayer out of school because of the mockery it had become? I see the pain in these articles and comments, and the question that seems to arise is not does God exist, but does a loving, caring God exist? Pain cannot be factored out of life, but neither can the Hope that comes from feeling God in your life, not just intellectualizing God. If you lose Faith, seek Hope, which may be found in the Love that is in the world. No one, whether armed with shotguns, or fanatical rhetoric, can kill the Love that is all around us, if we choose to look for it. The crazies win if we abandon that search. I'm not going to let them dictate who I am. Please don't let them do that to you...