Let me address a few things..
I may not know much about Columbine, or anything else for that matter, through my limited experiences in life, but I do know that kids, teens, adolescents, or whatever you wanna call them, have problems. Whether they are superficial (ie. "OMG! A zit the day before prom! What ever shall I do? *insert ladylike faint*) or real problems, like parental abuse (physical, verbal, sexual), they need to be helped. I may think that I have it bad, but I know other kids have it worse. There are places these teens can go to get help if they want it. Some, like myself, prefer to deal with problems on their own. I was once offered a chance to see a psychiatrist, but I declined. It's not the fact that I don't want others to help, it's just that I'm afraid of what people might think. You're probably thinking that "well, if it's a professional, he/she won't tell anyone...there's the Doctor-Patient privacy thing..." or whatever. Still, I'm afraid of what the person inside the doctor would think. I don't have the highest self-esteem and it used to be even lower, and I don't want to think that someone is judging me. That's why I try to "fit in" with the "cool" crowd. That way, if someone were to see me, hanging out with all the "cool, pretty" people, they wouldn't see the real me, of course not, that's just scary, but they'd see that I was "cool" and not a geek or something. First impressions are relied upon too heavily in today's society. To truly know someone, you need to look under the clothes and make-up and find the real person. For Dylan & Eric, people automatically judged them by how the dressed, or how they might have preferred solitude and never made an effort to get to know them. Now, I was discussing this aspect with Renata, who is also posted here, and I agreed with her when she said it was Dylan's and Eric's fault too. Who's to say that Dylan and Eric weren't the only ones who didn't try to make friends? Granted, it's not exactly the easiest job in the world, some people can make friends easier than others, but it can be accomplished if you've got the right attitude and effort. If not, prepare to be judged solely on how people see you from afar. If you shun yourself from other people, you automatically earn the reputation of a "loner," or more harsh, a "loser." Now, I suppose, as I stated earlier, people shouldn't base their idea of someone on their appearance, or the number of friends they have. Of course, if this ever happened, there'd be hardly any racism or sexism or practically any hatred in this world. That's an overly optimistic idea, I know, but something should be done. Not to sound too corny, but doors need to be opened, walls need to be knocked down, and people need to open their minds to something different, for once.
- Natasha