Friday, April 20, 2018

The times they are achangin'

     


     On this date in 1999 I was living in a house I built in Valdez Alaska that I shared alternate weeks at a time with my son who also was 9. As was my habit I arose early and had gone down to my office on a lower floor to write. I turned on the TV for background noise but soon the news intruded. A couple of boys had entered Columbine High School in the Denver Suburbs and started shooting everything that moved. When they'd finished, 12 students and a teacher lay dead, 21 more were wounded and then they turned the guns on themselves leaving behind a tragedy larger than any such event had reached to that point.
     My son was with me that week and when it came time to wake him for school, I made sure any way he could see the news would not be visible. I didn't want him troubled by this.
But while I was distracted making breakfast, I heard the television come on as he sat in the living room. Of course what came on was CNN with wall to wall coverage of the shootings. I ran to turn it off, but thought better of it and sat down with him to try to explain it to him. On his part, he sat there stone silent almost stunned as he absorbed what he was seeing.
     He showed little reaction until one of the reporters mentioned Denver and the school's proximity to that city. My son had cousins on his mother's side who went to school in the Denver suburbs and he asked about them, if they were safe and I had to tell him I had no way of knowing. I realized that was not going to be good enough for him. At the time the separation and eventual divorce from his mother had been acrimonious and I loathed talking with her, but gradually I realized I would have to.
     So as calmly and officiously as I could I punched in the number and when she answered I explained the situation and asked if any of his cousins could have been involved. She said no and I asked her to talk with him for a moment to explain it to him.
    He took the phone and listened quietly to whatever she was saying. In time he returned the phone to me and sat back down on the couch. He remained quiet through breakfast and the drive to school. I tried to pry out of him what he was thinking but I never did find out.
     Now with the events and protests going on these days I still wonder how that event affected him and if any of it stayed with him. Then too I wonder how all those parents more closely involved with a shooting handle it, both the parents of the victims and those of the survivors.
     Seeing these kids stand up and push for change has been heartening. Adults haven't done anything
to effect changes but the kids from Parkland have taken a stand and carried their message nationwide. Today marking 19 years since Columbine, those involved there have stood up as well with the Parkland kids in full support, along with school walkouts around the world. It appears they are drawing in support from people who have never had to experience a shooting in their schools, but now have that fear in them as well.
   They have a movement and they show the determination to carry it through until effective changes are made. Wish them success. They just might accomplish something we adults have failed miserably to do,
 Before Columbine and Newton and Parkland, there was Bethel, Alaska

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1 comment:

  1. Kitty FApril 20, 2018 at 3:16 PM

    The kids from Parkland have been amazing. Such a terrible topic to have to address with children, but great to see them taking the lead on this. I'm with them.

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