April, 2002.  It's been three years since Columbine.  And I sincerely don't think anything has changed.
        A lot has happened in America since then.  A lot more shooting sprees at schools, for one thing.  Terrorism that shook a great deal of the nation.  Quite frankly, while there is no one excuse or explanation, I still think all of this can fall under the category of "informed but ignorant".
        What, we didn't know about the threat posed to the World Trade Center?  Not exactly, no.  But anyone who had bothered listening would have known America was being threatened by terrorism.  It doesn't take much intelligence to know that much.  The thing about "lunatics"; it's a label.  It doesn't mean they're not capable of intelligent thought.  At least, intelligent enough to have gotten away with it.
        Maybe we never could have imagined the Columbine incident.  But then, anyone who was ever teased and tormented in school could have told you they had thoughts of blowing the heads off of some people.  Come on, it takes a toll.  Everyone has those violent fantasies, and sometimes it's the only way you can deal with the world.  But fantasy to reality... when you are beaten down every day mercilessly, and when no one will listen to you and no one will help... yeah, it's easy to see why it happened.  A snap.  A tear.  A moment beyond the human ability to cope.  Boom.
        And so some people talked about it.  Stress, they said.  Teasing, tormenting.  And then it was forgotten.
        Until the second shooting incident.  And then the third.  Finally the issue was taken seriously... for a while.  Oprah did a few shows.  Everyone did, really.  Nighttime news programs, talk shows, everyone.  Kids poured their hearts out... and I can guarantee you that those that did were tormented far worse afterward.  After all, their classmates probably saw them on TV, being "pussies" about the teasing.  Maybe hence more shootings.  We may never know.
        It drives home how easily we can ignore what we don't want to hear, don't you think?  Oh no, kids aren't that cruel.  No, not my son, not my daughter.  Not my country.  I wonder how many people actively thought that before these things happened.
 
 

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