Flower Blue
Six years ago today, two young men walked calmly across their school parking lot, knowing beyond doubt that they were about to set in motion the defining event of their generation. They knew that what they were about to commit was an act that would be etched in the minds of their peers forever, and cause shock and bewilderment to everyone too old to understand. They were about to achieve immortality, in the easiest, quickest, most basic way possible.
Back then I was still naive enough to think that my generation would finally be the ones to pull it off. I looked around my graduating class and saw nothing but potential. We were the culmination of all the hard work which came before us, and we were going to solve whatever problems stood in our way. I actually thought that.
But we were not the final answer. What we learned from those who came before us...that knowledge was no blessing. It was our downfall.
Eric and Dylan are their fathers' sons. Your sons. The kids they killed, the kids who drove them to this, and the kids who merely stood by in ignorance...they are your sons and daughters as well. They used your guns. They used your hatred, your ignorance, and your violence and used them to reject your model of perfection and achieve it on their own terms. They are made in your image. All of us are; it's all we know how to be, and we hate it, and some of us will do anything, anything to break your mold.
And afterward as you argued relentlessly over which one of you was to blame, we buried our dead and added their strength to the ladder we were building. We didn't care who was at fault. We were willing to accept the responsibility ourselves. From April 20, 1999 onward, we would shoulder the burden that had been bequeathed to us by cruel fate of heritage: to do something about our world. Now was our time.
Then before we knew what hit us, the Trade Center came down, and that was the end of that. That was your tragedy, not ours, but you thrust it upon us anyway. We'd already been hurt, already had our moment of weakness and of renewed strength. But nothing could not match up to this new terror. So, we are labelled with your legacy, not ours. We live in your country, not ours. We die in your war, not ours.
Of course, we probably would have wound up even worse off. At the end of the day, we are still our fathers' sons.
Cassie Bernall
Steven Curnow
Corey DePooter
Kelly Fleming
Matthew Kechter
Daniel Mauser
Daniel Rohrbough
Dave Sanders
Rachel Scott
Isaiah Shoels
John Tomlin
Lauren Townsend
Kyle Velasquez
We Are Columbine
Back then I was still naive enough to think that my generation would finally be the ones to pull it off. I looked around my graduating class and saw nothing but potential. We were the culmination of all the hard work which came before us, and we were going to solve whatever problems stood in our way. I actually thought that.
But we were not the final answer. What we learned from those who came before us...that knowledge was no blessing. It was our downfall.
Eric and Dylan are their fathers' sons. Your sons. The kids they killed, the kids who drove them to this, and the kids who merely stood by in ignorance...they are your sons and daughters as well. They used your guns. They used your hatred, your ignorance, and your violence and used them to reject your model of perfection and achieve it on their own terms. They are made in your image. All of us are; it's all we know how to be, and we hate it, and some of us will do anything, anything to break your mold.
And afterward as you argued relentlessly over which one of you was to blame, we buried our dead and added their strength to the ladder we were building. We didn't care who was at fault. We were willing to accept the responsibility ourselves. From April 20, 1999 onward, we would shoulder the burden that had been bequeathed to us by cruel fate of heritage: to do something about our world. Now was our time.
Then before we knew what hit us, the Trade Center came down, and that was the end of that. That was your tragedy, not ours, but you thrust it upon us anyway. We'd already been hurt, already had our moment of weakness and of renewed strength. But nothing could not match up to this new terror. So, we are labelled with your legacy, not ours. We live in your country, not ours. We die in your war, not ours.
Of course, we probably would have wound up even worse off. At the end of the day, we are still our fathers' sons.
Cassie Bernall
Steven Curnow
Corey DePooter
Kelly Fleming
Matthew Kechter
Daniel Mauser
Daniel Rohrbough
Dave Sanders
Rachel Scott
Isaiah Shoels
John Tomlin
Lauren Townsend
Kyle Velasquez
We Are Columbine
posted by Anti at 1:39 AM
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