Letter to the Editor
Campus Times
May 21, 1999
Dear Editor,
My family moved from California to Littleton, Colorado when I was 16
and stayed there for six years. I stayed here to finish school and visited
them over the summer, and all of the major holidays and breaks. Littleton
is Suburban Paradise: planned communities dot the landscape and are strung
together under the name of Littleton, huge homes are connected by green
belts, the community celebrates all of the holidays. It was the kind of
town that when a blizzard closed all of the schools, neighbors would take
turns hosting the neighborhood children in their basement so parents could
go to work or find some peace. When my father's job transferred him back
to California, everyone cried.
Columbine High is in the city limits of Littleton, but actually part
of another school district, so I have never been to that school. But watching
the news coverage and helicopter shots of my old neighborhood, and then
reading about everyone squabbling over how it happened is downright painful!
Most of the families I met out there had also moved from California, and
I wonder how many of them are troubled by these conversations. This was
not a media event. Imagine if it happened here tomorrow and as much as you
tried to deal with it, it was constantly discussed by people who have no
authority or reason for analyzing it. I have heard from former neighbors
of mine, and I know their local gossip, but I also feel a sliver of their
pain from this overexposure.
Can we stop looking at the footage, and take a break from judging them,
and use that time to tend to ourselves? This situation is not about the
NRA or tacky trench-coats, nor is it even about hate. What happened there,
children feeling so overlooked that they made us take notice, happens every
day all over the place. Let's stop looking at Colorado and turn our attention
to the children in our own lives!
Sonya Keith
Senior
via Internet
