Thoughts on Colorado

April 22, 1999

Today I watched the "coverage" again.

Wednesday night I watched my daughter play soccer. The stands were mostly empty, some of the players had a group of friends there as a cheering section.

I saw hip hugging bell bottoms on the young girl's bodies. Hip hugging bell bottoms are back I guess.

Boys and girls in braces engaged in a dance of relationships.

I remember being young. I'm still got some memory left. I remember my 16th birthday party. We went to an amusement park. Boy thinks about girls, girls and girls.

Teenagers.

Today what do my teens think about?

My son goes on the net all the time. Occasionally I check to see where he goes.

ESPN - sports, sports, sports.

Good

I have been shaken by the events in Colorado. The entire time I watched the kids run about the field last night, I kept looking down to the cheering section.

They ran about, carefree, interacting boy to girl. I saw injured teenagers, I saw bodies. Maybe it is because I have 3 teenagers, maybe because for 2 years I helped try and put together broken bodies.

Innocence lost.

I saw a father interviewed this morning, as he listened to a teenager tell how the young black man next to him, was picked out and killed.  The father took his hand, and the boy then told how he later found that his sister was killed elsewhere in the building.

I heard of a father who went and stood in front of his son's pickup truck in the parking lot of the school. The man sobbed. His child's truck had been turned into a shrine.

I cannot imagine such anguish.

I heard the word EVIL tonight on the television as it described what happened in Colorado. I was glad to hear that word.

We all want answers. We want them fast, we want to put the answer in the right cubby hole so we can feel safe. We want to "do something."

Unfortunately, it appears that what happened in Denver is just a small reminder of that same evil which runs around the world tonight. It is the same evil which rapes children in front of their parents, and wives in front of their husbands, before the men are led off to die.

Evil that cleanses. I don't think so.

Somehow I think that the collective "us" wants to believe that we are really civilized. After all, the year 2000 is just around the corner.

We want answers.

I don't have answers, and I sure wish I did.

What I have told my children is that we are surrounded by good and evil. Sometimes evil can be made to look exciting and good. All I can hope is that when they see it, they recognize it, and run like hell.

And after running, I hope they make sure they meet up with those of like mind, and keep the candles lit.

Tonight I pray for all those families, for comfort. It's all I can do to reach out to those who cry in the night