ojaeflo

On this day, five years ago, two disallusioned boys saw those that they attended high school with as the bane of their existence. Through careful planning and the negligence of parents and other supervising adults, these two boys ended the lives of thirteen innocent people before putting themselves out of their misery.

There are a lot of things that should be different in this country that could've prevented the attrocities of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, five years ago today. You can point fingers at those who failed to see the signs: the parents, teachers & counselors, local law enforcement. You can point fingers at the governmental bodies that are determined to arm every last American in this country supposedly in the name of God-given freedom. No one I've mentioned is above fault to some extent.

But the desire to hurt others manifests within one's self. On a high school level, there is absolutely nothing that happens that is so bad that everyone has to die. Even the worst trauma imaginable is no excuse to put someone you may not even know in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. There's certainly nothing in junior high or high school that happens that should leave a family without a son.

Rich kids can be assholes, pretty girls can be douche bags, and jocks can be bullies. Welcome to public schooling as it's been since this land became a country over 200 years ago. But life doesn't begin in high school and it only gets better afterward. Don't quit on yourself, and don't be such a prick that you think the world has wronged you so emphatically that other people have to suffer in order to make some sort of sense of it. Don't be an asshole. It's never that bad. Never.