Or1g1nal1ty

Yeah, actually. Fucked up thing? Rachel Scott quit smoking at the behest of a friend that week. She would have probably been at the smokers pit (smoking area just off school property). Life is disturbingly strange.

The point is that we're a violent country, but that it isn't the guns. It's us. The people. Fear, violence, hatred, xenophobia, etc. We're kinda screwed up.

I hate guns, with a passion. Don't care if you love them or hate them or own them. Same opinion I had before it all.

It's hard for me to take anyone who dismisses bullying seriuosly. Immediately following the event there were dozens of well researched and sourced reports (even quotes from the bullies themselves proud of it!). I specifically love the time article about it. A jock kid talked about how they dressed like 'faggots' and that's 'why we treated them like freaks'. Not quite sure why you wouldn't trust that.

Oh, and the police are the only thing I'm certain could have stopped it. The governors report on the incident 5 years later showed there were 20 contacts to the police about Eric's psychotic behavior. It's really awful to think that when a kid who's going through the juvenile system tells his counselor that he feels homicidal and suicidal all the time can be let out of the system (while down the street he's been reported for making death threats against multiple students...and nothing happens. The police did nothing. They certainly could have stopped this.

If you ever figure it out, let me know - it's a quote that sits in my brain every day that gives me no respite.