Columbine

Books have been published;
research spanning years
rendered down to the why.
Question, always the question
needing, by some,
to be answered--that why?.

For the underlying need is to
assign blame
as if that
shall answer the question,
as if that can make it then
understood.

Books, full to bursting,
splitting at the sentenced seams
with reasonings
but
they cannot make the coffins vanish.


The Columbine flower
innocence--
Fallen petals said to have blossomed
beneath Mary's foot
crushed
beneath the wanton heel.

What is important now
is not culpability
of parent, society or friend
but of the lost possibilities
of budding flowers
that shall never bloom.



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The following excerpts come from an article entitled “New books probe truth about Columbine,” by Associated Press Writer M.L. Johnson.

Seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and one teacher in less than 20 minutes on April 20, 1999…

Freelance writer Dave Cullen initially covered the attack for online magazine Salon. His book “Columbine” weaves three story lines reconstructing the attack…

Jeff Kass, a longtime reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, focuses primarily on the killers’ development and the battle to get government records related to the shooting released. The paperback “Columbine: A True Crime Story” contains excerpts from… Klebold’s college admission essays...

The boys did not target jocks or minorities. They aimed to kill as many people as possible. Some victims happened to be athletes and minorities.

Ultimately, both authors come to a conclusion about why the attack happened. But they differ on that too.

“I think Columbine and other school shootings are an outgrowth of the South and West of the United States, and suburbs and small towns,” Kass said. “In suburbs and small towns, if you’re an outcast in high school, you feel like a loser through-and-through because there are no alternative outlets to find your self-esteem… And in the South and the West, there is a mentality that if you feel your honor has been injured, you take it upon yourself to retaliate.”

“The reason Eric did it is because he was a sadistic psychopath with no conscience and not to stop him from hurting anyone,” Cullen said. “He did it for enjoyment and self-aggrandizement.”

Klebold, he said, was intent on suicide but might not have killed if he hadn’t befriended Harris.