Re: RAT COLUMBINE

[InTheLime@aol.com]

In a message dated 99-04-23 15:52:25 EDT, you write:

<< Do you really think this can all be reduced to "high school sucks" and
 "boys will be boys" >>
Oh Josh, now who's being "reductive."   Reread and you'll see that I didn't 
say that at all.  I actually spent way too much time making sure I wasn't 
"reductive"  and you spent a couple of minutes reducing what I wrote (I know 
this, cause I only sent the darn thing out a few minutes ago). If anything, I 
"reduced" it to being OUR fault...mine AND yours...that we are all 
responsible because our Village does not raise the child properly.  Our 
tribal responsibilites have been shattered into separateness.  Me, me and 
more me.

If you, and so many others, want to reduce this all to "doom" there's a lot 
of shadows you're probably missing in your reduction. For one thing, these 
"kids" didn't find out how to build pipe bombs while playing doom, they did a 
lot of research - they were smart - sharp -  "Kids." - with unsupervised 
access to computers and libraries.  And truth be told...they were old enough 
that they weren't kids anymore...but lived in a kid mentality because we 
don't let our children grow up when biology says that they should.  (one of 
the points I was trying to make in the message you reduced).

These "kids" truly believed that they were embroiled in a war on home soil.  
They believed enough to plan a suicide mission. You don't have suicide 
missions in Doom, Josh.  I play Doom.  I can tell you the goal there is to 
live to find all the answers - to make it to the end of the game and then buy 
the sequal.  And you don't warn some of the monsters to go home in Doom 
either...they're all monsters, indiscriminately.

What these men knew was that if they did this, you I (collectively) would be 
debating the sides, viewing the consequences, searching for a reason.  If you 
would like a reduction of that: Adults would pay attention.  If you think it 
was all just reduced to a "game" to them, I think you aren't paying attention 
to all of the evidence coming forward.  And I don't think the shooting was 
random, by any means.  Look at who was shot.  Look at who wasn't shot.  I 
think they probably "accidentally" shot a few people, or in the heat of war 
shot some people they might not have intended to shoot originally (like a 
trainful of refuges shot down by NATO)...but I'm quite sure they had an 
agenda of who would go down...  

They went to the library, Josh, the center of knowledge for the school.  Why 
do you think they did that?  They planted bombs throughout the school, but 
they ended in the library.  And they killed themselves there.  Why not kill 
themselves in the Gym or the Cafeteria?  Definitely go deeper, and start 
looking at the pattern they set up - the puzzle they created. Do a little 
"profiling" to find out where these "kids" were coming from. They didn't just 
decide the day before Hitler's birthday - "oh, gosh, yuck, yuck, you know 
it's Hitler's birthday tomorrow...how's about we build us some bombs and have 
a game of doom in the school halls."  They built those bombs themselves.  
They PLANNED.  They warned people to get out because they liked them.  They 
warned people MONTHS ago.  People laughed at them.   

This wasn't a "random" act of violence Josh...and it certainly wasn't "boys 
will be boys."  It was  a result of numerous factors, many of which you know 
but have reduced to "high school sucks."   But because it was 
organized...because it is not some strange "random" act...because we can list 
situations like this on a "one on one" basis ever since one person met 
another person (you could start with Cain and Abel - if you believe in that 
one as history rather than myth)...it is historically documented that this is 
not the first time such a thing has happened. 

"Boys will be boys?"  Oh please!  I'm saying society, not boys.  I'm saying 
all of us have within us the same switch that these particular men 
had...because we are humans and that is (I'm afraid) a biological response 
within us that we have attempted to "civilize."   I am an army brat, so maybe 
I think in terms of military because of my roots.  Or maybe it's the Irish 
heritage thing...but I certainly don't think there is anything reductive 
about believing that the hell of High School (and yes, it was/is Hell for 
just about everyone with an ounce of sense) could lead to internal revolution 
- particularly in a setting where cliques are not only allowed but promoted.  

My husband went to a Waldorf school, small, enclosed, where everyone did 
everything...these are the most beautiful, understanding people I know...well 
educated, well integrated - hard partiers, lovers of people...and oh 
yeah...many of them play Doom.  Luckily for all of us, some of them are 
beginning to move into positions of power where they might one day change the 
way we view education and the world. 

--Aileen McCulloch
The Vagabond Acting Troupe
Philadelphia, PA