A few weeks ago, a columnist named David Brooks for the New York Times wrote this column which is basically just him agreeing with this column by Dave Cullen.
Mr. Brooks then started receiving E-mails from Tom Klebold, Dylan Klebold’s father, which led to this piece in Saturday’s New York Times.
In it, the Klebolds refuse to apologize for what happened. Susan Klebold even goes as far to say, “I haven’t done anything for which I need forgiveness.” They also describe the day of the shootings as “a natural disaster” and the Klebold’s discuss the day as a suicide and not as a day when 13 random people were killed. Two quotes from the NY Times article jumped out at me…
They believe that what they call the “toxic culture” of the school — the worship of jocks and the tolerance of bullying — is the primary force that set Dylan off. But they confess that in the main, they have no explanation.
Yet, they didn’t kill any jocks, and I have yet to hear of the names of any jocks who allegedly bullied them. And then there was this…
“I’m a quantitative person,” said Tom, a former geophysicist. “We’re not qualified to sort this out.” They long for some authoritative study that will provide an answer. “People need to understand,” Tom said, “this could have happened to them.”
So it sounds like to me that they’re willing to let other people raise their child. People like Eric Harris. The impression I get is that the Klebolds are very self-absorbed. They must be to have missed obvious warning signs, which they regrettably admit…
“He was hopeless. We didn’t realize it until after the end,” Tom said. Susan added: “I think he suffered horribly before he died. For not seeing that, I will never forgive myself.”
Suffered horribly? At least he knew that he was going to die that day. 13 other people weren’t afforded such a luxury.
As expected, parents of the true victims are not happy…
“I’m horrified,” Dawn Anna, whose daughter Lauren Townsend was killed at Columbine, told The Associated Press. “I wanted an apology. I wanted a contribution to help us understand why it happened, so that it would never happen again. I didn’t hear it.”
Brian Rohrbough, father of victim Daniel Rohrbough, said he was outraged that the Klebolds likened the day of the shootings to a natural disaster in the interview with Brooks.
The best quote to sum this all up also comes from Brian Rohrbough who said…
“This was murder,” he said. “In my opinion, what went on in their home led to Columbine.”
Now if only the Klebold’s would pull their heads out of the sand and realize that.
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