Sounds pretty sensible to me. In the meantime, let's all hunker down and try to weather the storm. The shootings at Columbine High School last April brought into sharp focus the dilemma of difference, anger and violence not only in our schools but also in our culture. Kids learn by imitation. And whether or not their examples come from the media, popular culture, history or their families is where the argument starts.
Political turf is carved up and our kids become the sacrificial lambs of our private agendas.
At Columbine and at the shockingly frequent follow-ups in schools and workplaces around the country alienation, racism, desperation and a long cultural history of violence in church, home and state has reaped a bitter harvest. For me, the easy access to guns has got to be addressed. Not by itself, but it certainly is part of the issue. A schizophrenic national policy toward war and violence offers no solace. President Clinton was a picture of hypocrisy as he urged teenagers to seek nonviolent solutions to their differences while simultaneously ordering the bombing of Yugoslavia .