Date: Fri 30-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-Columbine-Littleton

Full Text:

ED INK: The Questions Of Columbine

All the collective soul searching that has spread through the airwaves and in

print since the killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., a week

and a half ago has sought to answer the question: Why? We all know, however,

there is no satisfactory answer to that question. We will never come to a

rational understanding that the slaying of 12 students and a teacher can be

the logical result of any set of circumstances, and yet we feel compelled to

do just that. We are tightly bound to the notion that if we can just use our

intellects to unravel the worst horrors of this world strand by strand, we can

then tinker in a scientific way with the underlying architecture of hate so

that next time the result won't be quite so horrifying.

We all want acceptance and love, and we do our best to avoid rejection and

hate. And to these ends we form associations with people who give us the

former and protect us from the latter. Nowhere is this inclination seen more

clearly than in the high school, where adolescence etches every human trait in

such high relief. Belonging to a group of like-minded friends builds

self-esteem and confidence. But all too often it concurrently builds suspicion

and distrust of those who are not quite so like-minded. The selves that are

worthy of so much esteem become not just Us but rather Us and not Them. And we

are now so painfully aware of where that kind of thinking leads.

Perhaps in our current highly publicized binge of social analysis, we should

shift the question from why such horrible things happen to how we conduct our

own lives in our endless quest for love and acceptance. The real answers to

these most perplexing questions may come not through opening comprehensive

intellectual inquiries but through opening our hearts -- not just to our

closest friends, but to everyone.