Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of the killings at Columbine High School in Colorado, the worst school shooting in U.S. history:
- One by one, students, parents and neighbors arrived at Columbine High School on Tuesday
....Retirees Les and Vi Fast, who live nearby, walked across a field near Columbine in the morning sun. Like others, they said they were here for quiet reflection.
"We just can't believe something like this could have happened in such a beautiful community," Vi Fast said.
Her husband added: "Having been a schoolteacher myself, I was thinking of Dave Sanders," the teacher who bled to death while authorities waited to enter Columbine.
Five years ago, on April 20, 1999, Columbine students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and Sanders before committing suicide. The anniversary forced many to come to grips with an unspeakable violence.
"I just want today to be a peaceful day to remember and to hope for the future," said Kallen Dunn, 36, who went with her son, Michael, a 15-year-old Columbine student.
"Certain days are harder than others. This is one of them," said Joe Kechter, whose son, Matt, was among those killed. "We were told by counselors that the fifth would be harder. I don't know the reason but it is true. I wish there were other things we could have done today."
Erin Walton was one of the last survivors to escape that day, stepping over the bodies of classmates as she fled.
"It's very, very hard to be in a school atmosphere," she said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I always carry that with me and I always have to be in a room with a window and a door. It's a comfort zone for me."
The school sat empty Tuesday, its 1,700 students given the day off. The building has been overhauled since the tragedy, with a new library replacing the room where 10 of the students were slain.
....The only administrator left from 1999 is Principal Frank DeAngelis, who said staying at Columbine helped keep him sane.
"People ask me all the time when will that magical day occur in which Columbine will return to normal?" he said on ABC. "I don't think we'll ever return to normal." [AP]
Two years ago I wrote this on my old site Tres Producers about 9/11 and Columbine:
If you follow Osama bin Laden's career as a terrorist, it can be seen as an accelerating grab for attention from the aloof, uncaring authority-figure America who has allowed the other boys to pick on poor little Islam, done some picking on of its own, and HURT ISLAM'S PRIDE: "Well, if you won't pay attention to me when I do this ... then I will do this, and if you don't pay attention to me then, I will do this ...," all the while jumping up and down, waving his skinny little arms, and crying for attention - even NEGATIVE ATTENTION - which at some point turned to homicidal hatred.
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