On the 20th of April 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, the gunshots of anger screamed out loud, and so frightingly clear. In a country so proud of being progressive, why is it that our country seems to be growing more violent. Why did two young men with their lives just begining, walk with cold hearts into their school, and kill their fellow man.
"They were not monsters," I heard one student say of the two killers. "I lost friends on both sides," she muttered with a confused light in her eye. It took a few minutes for me to try and understand why she didn't think they were "monsters." She "knew" them. If they were not "monsters," then what made two intelligent, yet strange, young people commit an act so vile that the people our country can only feel empty as to why the young victums lost their lives. Again, we can only ask questions, when the answers seem to be lost in the cruelty of our society.
Society in general, lack of parenting, video games, television, genetic predisposition to violence. Somewhere in all those issues and beyond, lies an an answer. It seems as we progress as a society we are losing some of our human qualities. I'm at an age where I was able to see the change from the past to the present take place. I spent half of my youth without cable television, video games, and many other high tech distractions, and distortions of reality. The MTV world, that youth of today live in, came along when I was in high school. I had my past; of playing baseball all day, or riding my bike, or reading and writing. I didn't have television or a virtual murder video game glued to my consciousness when I was a developing youth. These new modern inventions, in and of themselves, are not problematic. It is the lack of balance in some modern youths' lives, and added to any one or more of many issues, that creates a condition for a seperation from the humanity of the soul.
There are two other issues that I have recognized as bothersome in direct relationship to the Littleton tragedy. One, is the media's coverage of the murders. In particular, MSNBC's MTV style video they aired while the 911 tapes were first being played. If you are not familiar with this style, watch a music video some time. The action cuts to a new shot every 5 seconds or less. It is a method used to keep the viewer's attention. When the 911 tapes were playing I found myself thinking that MSNBC was playing a music video. MSNBC showed all of the dramatic and traumatic footage of the students and SWAT teams in a fast paced sequence, as not to lose our attention. The reason I found it bothersome is that it was the first time I had noticed the music video style of producing in such a hard core news story. A second bothersome issue is the confusing 'irony of life.' The United States, along with our NATO allies, have been bombing Serbia for 1 month and have not lost one life. It is hard to imagine how our country could be in a war and not have lost a single soul to the violence of war, while the youth of our country, in a few short hours, took 15 innocent lives. This irony shows what the progression of our society has given us. The abiltiy to wage a war without losing a single person, and the inabilty to save some of our youth, who are lost somewhere in the gray shadows (dark trenchcoats) of the fast paced progression of our world.
There is a bright light that still shines from our human souls. The magic that makes us caring human beings may save our youth; when we learn how to be more conscious of its magic and are able to direct love to all people on many levels. We can see the magic in this tragedy. People from all around the world are praying and sending cards and flowers to the people of Littleton. I hope we can learn from this nightmare and become more respectful of all people. I hope we can learn to turn off the television and play catch with our kids. I hope that one day we won't need police substations inside of schools. I hope that we at least try and understand why this happened so that we may all play a role in stopping any future nightmares; that we may not awaken from.
