Columbine's Consequences

Thankfully, I did not lose a child at Columbine. Although the number of those killed was too large, my response to it is as personal as it is community-based. A collection of self-empowered and misguided students changed my community forever. And as one who has had need to travel past the Columbine site, my life is eternally harmed by it.

What happened in a very short time was many-layered. Our schools, considered safe spots for our children and test tubes where learning was incubated and grown, were violated and contaminated. As a parent, my sense of safety was eradicated.

Our community, often punctuated with acts of violence and pointless termination of life, was the next layer that was permanently damaged. Was I no longer safe to visit the schools (as I do often for public speaking events to inner city youth) without becoming a target? As someone committed to the value of speaking to survival, value of education and transcending our limits, were my messages to be obliterated by a tyrannical student act?

And our nation as a whole has lost. We have more horrifying statistics, more mysteries surrounding motivation and the lingering sense of tragic personal loss.