Last week I finally got around to a book that's been sitting on the pile for quite some time. I wanted to read Dave Cullen's Columbine before the 10th anniversary year of the watershed school massacre came to an end. Riveting reading, it was difficult to put down. Considered the nation's foremost authority on those who perpetrated the event now known by the simple one-word name of the school, Cullen has spent ten years investigating every nook and cranny of what happened in Littleton before, during, and after April 20, 1999.
I remember where I was when I first heard the news. I was in the car driving from speaking to an English class at Lancaster Bible College, heading a few miles south to speak to some at-risk students in an after-school program at Lancaster City's McCaskey High School. An initial radio report had informed me that there had a been a school shooting in Colorado and a few kids had been injured. By the time I got back in my car a couple of hours later, a more grim story was unfolding fast. I was up all night glued to the TV. Since then - in fact before the bodies were removed from the school - Columbine reality and myth have been woven together in a mix that's allowed the truth to get muddied by chaotic confusion, trauma-fueled desire, misinformation, hasty assumptions, false conclusions, irresponsibility, and lies.
Yesterday, after finishing Cullen's book, I ran across this quote attributed to John F. Kennedy: "Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." Timely. The age of rapid information has combined with our desire for easy answers, our lack of good research, our need for Evangelical heroes, and our bent towards believing what we want to believe to cloud the truth about Columbine. And this bad habit is not only limited to the Columbine massacre. We do it all the time. And Evangelicals - a group I'm a part of that values truth and integrity - is usually no different. Mainstream media, viewers worldwide, Columbine families, and my own Christian culture jumped to some hasty conclusions. Then along comes Dave Cullen, shedding light on the facts and thereby illuminating the truth about Columbine in some undeniable ways. Granted, Cullen doesn't know everything and he has the advantage of post-dust-settlement hindsight. But he's helped us know more than we've ever known before.
Cullen's desire is to tell the truth and to get his readers to learn from Columbine. . . . about the mind and motivation of the school shooter, about the best way to respond, about the way we handle grief, about the need to forgive, and about how to find the truth in the midst of absolute chaos. Like so many others, I was quick to believe reports of a Trench Coat Mafia, jock-targeted killings, revenge on bullies, anti-Christian sentiments, a unified police response, violence born out of disengaged parenting, and modern-day martyrdom. Very little of this was true. Dave Cullen took me on an eye-opening journey into Columbine's before, during, and after.
More than anything else, Dave Cullen's Columbine reminded me to carefully seek, find, and consider the facts in an effort to be a person of integrity. Because we say we value truth, we need to value truth. . . even if it means having to suffer the discomfort of doing an about-face on long-held assumptions and opinions that we'd like to be true.
6 comments:
Amen! I'll have to check it out. I was deeply impacted by the massacre (one of the reasons I went into student ministry). However, evangelicals have had a habit of taking a smidge of truth and blowing it into way more than it was intended. I saw that with the anti-Rock n roll movement. From the fact KISS was an acrostic for about 20 different things, to the tales of what Ozzy supposedly did at concerts. We love the sensational.
Thanks for the nice review of my book, Walt.
Really well said. I appreciate such a thoughtful read.
That Kennedy quote--yow, some things don't change.
Well put, Walt.
I read this book as soon as I could get my hands on it--it's a real page-turner and I believe every youth worker should read it.
Walt, you should know that this book isn't without controversy. There are more than a few people out there who have found great fault with the book "Columbine", alleging that the author gets many things wrong.
Chief among them is Randy Brown, the father of Brooks Brown, a friend of both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and who also attended CHS at the same time as the two boys. Mr. Brown has probably spent as much time or even more than Mr. Cullen studying everything having to do with that day at Columbine in April 1999 and he's expressed great dissatisfaction with the book "Columbine", even going so far as to almost call it a work of fiction. You should check out his comments on the book at Amazon. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3AJEK6T7746K6/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
The big secret about Columbine is that there were more involved than just Harris and Klebold. Don’t believe me? Just ask the eyewitnesses:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/columbineeight.php
I have not read Mr. Cullen's book, but I doubt he mentioned the particular religious affiliation of the trenchcoat mafia[TCM]. And yes, Harris and Klebold were very much a part of this group.
1) TCMer Eric Dutro walking around the school cafeteria telling people that "Satan loves you"(Kelly Beer, 6106) in the spring of '98.
2) Courtney van Dell, aka 'devil girl,' wore barettes in her hair to make it look like she had horns. Said to be a 'wikken'(sic) or a devil worshipper(Kristi Mohrbacher(1010), Jessica Lucero(1508 ), Leigh Ann Clark(2723)).
3) The students seeking shelter with Clement Park worker Steve Ogle(1056) told him the perpetrators were TCM and were "satanists".
4) Jecoa Catt(1364) told IO that the TCM were satanic.
5) Jason Jones(1474) observed the TCM playing 'magic' cards in the cafeteria, which were about the devil and about power.
6) Lacey Shotts(1651) said she believed the TCM students were 'devil worshippers.'
7) Jen Smull saw Robert Perry at a halloween party dressed as a worlock(1827).
8 ) Student Perlman(4054) said Joe Stair used to come to woodshop class with a book he called 'the devil's bible'.
9) Prior to 4th hour on 4-20, Nicole Ray(4144) saw a male TCMer in the science hall, with his hair fashioned into devil's horns.
10) TCM associate Nathan Dykeman's bedroom wall was supposedly covered with devil posters(4630).
11) Nathan Dykeman says Harris called him 'devil man'.(10710)
12) Daniel Burg(5838 ) told the IO that "...the TCM--they're like satanists."
13) TCM leader Chris Morris told Mark Hengel(5899) "I don't believe in God. I follow Satan's Commandmants."
14) Sara Lutes(6821) says the TCM were satanic, and that they wore satanic symbols on their shirts, underneath their trenchcoats.
15) Chris Hooker, 18, said they were "satanic individuals."
"We'd see them every day. They've threatened to kill people ... but nobody thought that was serious," Hooker said.
16) Library Intern Mary Ziccardi(13647) spent one week at CHS in November of '98. Says Eric Harris "looked like the devil" and may have worn black lipstick.
17) Teacher Mr. Long(EP24-17) said he kicked TCM associate Joe Stair out the computer class for accessing satanic sights. This happened last year.(1998)
18 ) TCM associate Eric Ault(10645) told the IOs that "they were into satanic worship."
19) Jennfer Harmon(8835): "...one of their friends-'Becka'-was waiting for the devil to take over the soul."
20) Brooks Brown(USAToday.com): "They're(TCM) all big on anti-God Satanism. They are really just 'pure hate'."
21) What kind of music did the TCM like? 'Devil' music according to Brandi Wiseman(4751).
22) Trista Fogerty(1420): TCM were satanic, when she first got to CHS friends told her to avoid the group.
23) Nicole Markham(8794): "Harris was into...heavy satanic music."
24) Nicole Lawson, sophomore(3526): (TCM associates)"Stephanie(Kinny) and Kelly(Schwab) would draw "fnords" on the black board. Fnords are little symbols that were servants of the devil. They would draw a whole bunch of them. They did it when no one was looking." ['fnord' is thought to stand for 'for no other reason, discord']
25) TCM associate Chuckie Phillips(10866) internet code(Puterfnord@...) name was meant to represent a servant of the devil.
26) Dustin Harrison(6577): "Dustin said (Redacted) 'scared me to death' because Dustin had heard that (Redacted) was a member of the "Hells Angels" satanic group and said that this satanic group is into human sacrifices. Dustin said that (Redacted) was very verbal about his desire to kill people."
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