Tags
Americans, books, bullying, Colorado, Columbine, He Was Weird, Jello Biafra, Jodi Piccoult, Joe Biden, obsessions, school shootings
This past weekend marked the quarter century anniversary of an event which will go down in infamy. Needless to say, I’m talking about the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado which took place on April 20, 1999. This school shooting has been etched in so many minds over the years, there’s no need to go over the details. Plenty of people have already done that, including President Biden. What I’m going to do is reflect on how it effected me personally.
One of those effects, although not directly a result from Columbine, is whenever a school shooting happened, my first response was, “This could have been me.” Like the two shooters, during that three year bullying hell I suffered, I was made to feel an outcast. Branded weird by my classmates and lazy by teachers, who ignored my bullying claims or even sided with the bullies! Even worse, some teachers exacerbated the bullying. If my experiences hadn’t been a quarter century before the infamous shooting and I had access to guns, who’s to say I wouldn’t have carried out my own version of Columbine. Fortunately, those things weren’t in place and I’m as glad as hell for that.
Instead what all of this did was encourage me to write about my experiences in my book, “He Was Weird.” In that story, the main character goes through much of the torment I went through and as a result, he does shoot up his school. One reader fed back to me that you can actually feel the protagonist pouring out all his hate when he carries out the shooting and that’s what it did for me, I poured out all my hate onto the pages of my book and now that hate is spent. But I might not have done so had it not been for Columbine. A weird predicament, don’t you think?
One really good speech about Columbine came from former Dead Kennedys singer and now a political and social commentator, Jello Biafra. He very eloquently shoots down the myths like music, especially Marilyn Manson, and violent video games being what drove the shooters to kill. He brings up other factors like bullying jocks getting a free pass and patted on the head for bullying undesirables. I know that experience all to well. Like Columbine, the town and school in question was a darkly conservative rich kids one. I wasn’t rich and I’m definitely not Conservative. Mr. Biafra hit the nail on the head as far as I’m concerned. Going off track for one second, I think if Jill Stein is going to run for president again as the Green Party candidate, she should choose Jello Biafra as her vice presidential running mate. I’d vote for them! I tried to post a snippet of said speech but the internet isn’t having it. In any case, the speech was so influential on me that I included him in my “Special Thanks” section of the book.
Speaking of books, the Columbine shooting has had such an impact on the literary world that school shootings has become its own genre. There are at least 50 books, including mine, which are about school shootings, some written by well known authors such as Jodi Picoult . While I know what drove me to write a book on the subject, I’m curious as to what would make others write about it.
The 25th anniversary of the Columbine shooting has come and gone and the question asked, “Has it changed anything?” Well, it seems to have influenced more school shooters and the US government is still dithering over the subject of gun control. Furthermore, to some, the two Columbine shooters have become folk heroes in their eyes. There is even an online group called, “The Columbiners,” where young women pour their hearts out over the shooters. I’ve jumped on that in a sense because in the sequel to “He Was Weird,” which I am working on, there is a group called the ‘Leversee Ladies’ who pour out their love for the shooter in my story. Therefore, I can only wonder how much effect Columbine will have a quarter century from now.
Peaceful Rampage 
Every school shooting is tragic. I remember Columbine. It was horrible. Did you see the Michael Moore movie about it? Bowling for Columbine I think?
Yes, I have watched it several times and it’s very good and hard hitting. No wonder there was such a rush to try to discredit Michael Moore.
I agree. Sad. I think his heart was in the right place, either that or he’s a very good actor. I felt his pain. I felt so much for all the families touched (or worse) by these school shootings.
I felt it too. However, the gun lobby and Republicans did everything to try to discredit him.