Mood:
luckyTopic: Politics
The day after I finished reading Bill Clinton's My Life, I finished reading Dave Cullen's Columbine, described as "A close-up portrait of violence, a community rendered helpless, and police blunders and cover-ups, it is a compelling and utterly human portrait of two killers—an unforgettable cautionary tale for our time."
Reading these two books back-to-back was a bit heavy, however it worked out quite nicely. The Columbine massacre occurred during Clinton's presidency and his Brady Bill was a part of the problem, just as it was the solution.
The Columbine attack began long before it was reported by the media—the plans, I mean. April 19, 1993 marked the end of a 51-day siege by the FBI on a Branch Davidian ranch near Waco, Texas. In Clinton's book, he explains the event represented abusive government power to right-wing extremists.
Two years later, April 19th marked another sad day in our country's history when military veteran Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. McVeigh purposely chose April 19 because of the anniversary of the FBI raid in Waco. The bombing killed 168 people, including 19 children.
Four years later, April 19th 1999, two high-school kids planned to murder all 2,000 in their school. The problem? They couldn't get enough ammo. So they waited one day.
On the evening of April 19, 1995, my dad picked me up from my youth group activity and told me about the Oklahoma City bombing. My heart felt for the children and I didn't understand the terror one man could cause. When my dad picked me up from eighth grade in 1999, he told me about the Columbine shooting. It is a day I will never forget. Since that day, I've had a curiosity about why it happened. It's one of the first events that I can honestly say was a loss of innocence; school was no longer a safe place to be. The days we knew before the shooting will never be.
Mr. Cullen's book is an extensive account of all the things we didn't hear about Columbine. It's interviews with the parents, the survivors, and what the killers left for us to find. It's the funerals and the memorials. It's the blood in the library. Most importantly, it explains why.
Part 1—FEMALE DOWN: the first 100 pages of this book are what shocked me the most. No lie, I read these pages with my jaw dropped. You know that part in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" when the narrator rattles off everything the Grinch steals from the Whos? "He took every PRESENT! POP GUNS! And BICYCLES! ROLLER SKATES! DRUMS! CHECKERBOARDS!..." Yeah? Well, that's how I felt reading this section of the book. You see, the media told us the Columbine tragedy could be blamed on Marilyn Manson, on violent video games, on the Trench Coat Mafia...but wait, these killers were SOCIAL! They went to PROM! They didn't listen to MANSON! They had JOBS! They went to FOOTBALL GAMES! huh?!
I'll get back to that in a minute. The book opens with a convocation hosted by Columbine's principal, Mr. D. He tells the students he loves them, he wants them to be safe at Saturday night's prom. He wants them to all be in school Monday morning. Tuesday, they would die.
We meet the killers (their names we know and need not be idolized here) and learn they are interested in prom. They have jobs at a local pizza joint. They like to drink sometimes. We meet student Cassie Bernall, an active in her church. We meet Coach Sanders. Then, we learn the original plan to take out the entire school, in three acts. Act I would begin with large propane bombs exploding in the cafeteria. Act II would be the killers standing at the schools exits with guns. Act III, the finale, would include the killers driving their cars filled with more bombs, through the police and reporters.
We go through "Judgment Day" several times with each victim. And then it gets scary—we learn that police didn't think about entering the school until an hour after the first shot was made. Some bodies wouldn't be seen until three hours later.
At this point, the media has already begun airing the story with the images we all remember; the kids running out of the school with their hands behind their heads. The rumors about who the killers are have also begun. A local conspiracy theory buds—one that took nearly ten years to figure out. Since the boys entered the school wearing trench coats, that was 2 killers, then they took the coats off, making the illusion of 2 more killers, and the AC repairman on the roof was one more killer (created by the media).
Part 2—AFTER AND BEFORE: this section gets into the media coverage and the community's reaction, including their attempts at closure. We learn about the killers' parents and their childhoods. We even learn about two people who assisted in the massacre without even knowing it.
Part 3—THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL: this part focuses on religion in the town after the murders. It also discusses spirituality in the killers' lives. It delves further into the conspiracy investigation, which includes the killers' several run-ins with the police prior to the tragedy. The police had also obtained pages from one of the killer's web sites which contained plans. Those pages were ignored, hidden, and then destroyed for years as part of a police cover-up.
Part 4—TAKE BACK THE SCHOOL: this section of the book is very intriguing. It explains the community's effort to really make the school a school, not a place of tragedy. For starters, students and teachers no longer referred to the incident as "Columbine." They also made a huge attempt to keep media out. Murder areas such as the cafeteria and library were demolished and rebuilt to be completely different.
Part 5—JUDGMENT DAY: the last part of the book explains final details in the scary plot. It reveals information the killers left behind in recorded videos and journal entries. It also discusses the lawsuits parents file against the police department for with-holding information. Many of the surviving families couldn't afford their hospital bills. Lastly, it explains where the students are today, how they deal with anniversaries, and how they have moved on.
***
This book freaked me out, there's no question about that. However, after I finished it, a few things stuck out in my mind. The way police handled it was indeed completely wrong, however, I have to give them the benefit of the doubt because although this wasn't the first school shooting, it was the biggest to date. No one expected it to happen because it hadn't happened before. That doesn't make it right, but...
Next, was the story of Coach Sanders. I wrote a blog for the 10 year anniversary last year explaining Sanders' story—basically he was left for hours to bleed to death. His surviving wife later received a settlement from the police, but they never admitted to any wrongdoing.
Then there was Cassie Bernall, the so-called martyr of Columbine. We know her as "the girl who said yes" when asked by the killers if she believed in God. When she said yes, she was killed. The community spent lots of energy saying the story was a lie, which broke her parents' heart. Cassie's church still tells the story and there is a book out about it. I don't know why they couldn't just let it rest. Everyone deals with grief in their own way.
And lastly, the scariest part of this book explained the mentality behind why the killers did what they did. It had nothing to do with jocks or bullies or music or video games. And it certainly had nothing to do with the way they were raised. It's genetic. So now I'm scared to have kids. End of story.
If you have interest in true crime, the media, or this story, I would highly recommend this book. It is eye-opening...to the point I couldn't sleep.
