This is a letter to the editor at the Winston-Salem Journal about the recent slew of news reports about the Columbine documents…
It saddens me to see the media fulfill the dreams of the two Columbine killers (I will not mention their names) with the continued coverage of their actions and publication of their names and faces at almost every “appropriate” opportunity (“Documents show progression of hate,” July 7). I read an excerpt from one of the killers’ writings shortly after the event that stated that one of his goals was to become famous through his actions and become immortalized by the media.
The media in their never-ending pursuit of the sensational has fulfilled their perverted dreams and goals by keeping their faces and names in the headlines. This could give others similar goals, knowing that they will be made famous through media attention. The Columbine story could be told in such a way as to help pass on its lessons, learned at such a heavy price, without plastering the names and faces of the perpetrators and keeping them “famous.”
PAUL S. MARLEY
Tobaccoville
While I do agree the media has more than sensationalized these stories, I have to disagree with the words famous and fame.
The more appropriate words are infamous and infamy. Fame implies that they’ve done something noteworthy or something that people enjoyed. While there are those dregs of society I refer to as mutants who do take pleasure in Columbine, they are but the smallest of minorities.
Infamy refers to notoriety through heinous or despicable acts. And it really doesn’t matter if their wish can be viewed as fulfilled or not. There’s not a whole lot they can do with that wish in hell.
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