jkissa-6:

May 24, 2018 Sue Klebold and John O’Leary

Parkland, FL.

Santa Fe, TX.

“Towns seldom mentioned before the school violence that sadly put them on the map and in front of all of our collective consciousness.

How do we move forward after tragedy strikes again? How do we advance forward not simply yelling, crying, praying and mourning about all that is wrong and all that’s been lost, but actually take steps forward to ensure our schools become safer, our communities become more life-giving and our world becomes better?

Sue Klebold is the mother of one of the Columbine High School shooters. She spent decades grieving the lives her son took (including his own), the families he harmed, the hurt he inflicted and the imitators he helped spawn. During these decades, she’s also begun moving from a the place of a mother who’s life was forever turned upside, to a voice of reason, compassion, and love reminding the rest of us what we can do to make a difference where we are.

My friends, Sue shared her heart, smile, joy and wisdom with me yesterday over coffee.

But she shared her story with me and her suggestions on moving forward more compassionately with all of us on our Live Inspired Podcast earlier this year. Do me, your families, your communities and yourself a huge favor, listen to it.

Although we can’t change all that’s happened in our lives and communities, we always possess the ability to influence what happens next.

This is your day. Live Inspired. J”

This guy did such a respectful and compassionate interview podcast with her. He truly admirers our Miss Sue. 🙌🏻💖

Do you think it’s possible Robyn took Dylan’s virginity on prom night? I’ve always kinda suspected it, she (probably) had a huge crush on him, and maybe he just wanted to get it done before NBK.. what do you think?

That makes for some great lemony fanfic but uh, no. Lol What is your reasons for ‘suspecting’ this? No offense but your question reads a bit like a Robyn-Dylan shipper heavy on the wish fulfillment. 😉 And beside of which, Dylan didn’t have a laundry list to ‘get laid’ like Eric did. It was not a priority for him at all, tbh.

I currently read A Mother’s Reckoning and Sue wrote that on April 19th, Dylan was in a hurry to get to his room when he came back from dinner with Eric that night. Do you know why?

I’d say that it’s most likely that Dylan had logistics plans to wrap up with Eric over the phone. He also discussed his last Fantasy Baseball plays with a couple friends and by the time Zack called around 10:30 pm he told Zack he was too tired to talk which Zack noted as a highly unusual thing for his friend to say since they usually stayed up until 12:30-1 am on the phone while playing video games. You can refer to this post too as far as piecing together a time line of happenings in the last few days leading up to the event.

How do you feel about the book Comprehending Columbine by Ralph Larkin?

Ralph Larkin is my least favorite Columbine author but he’s in a much better spot than Cullen at least. 😉 He was a much older guy when he wrote Comprehending Columbine and it shows throughout the book. He’s kind of behind the times in the manner he approaches things. However, I do like the fact that he spent a fair bit of time exploring the bullying problem that did go on at Columbine which wins him some positive points in my book. He wrote an article too disputing the anti-bullying rhetoric in Cullen’s book and for that, I think he should win a medal. ;). There is also careless misinformation and assumptions in Larkins book too. I discussed some examples of this on my blog before. You’ll need to E-C Search “Ralph Larkin” for other posts.

thedragonrampant:

This? This is a must-see. This is exactly what I’ve been speaking about on my blog for all these years. This is the message I carry with me, always, and the message I most wish to put out there. This goes beyond diagnosis, beyond external causes, beyond everything we hear as “reasons why”.. to land at the feet of something that may be very familiar to you, if you’re an avid reader of my blog.

And, yes, she’s New Age-y. Yes, there might be elements in this video that don’t jive with you. Yes, she promotes two of her other works within it. Tell you what: watch it anyway. Watch it. Think about it.

Let it exist. Please.

It’s important.

This is excellent.^^  Well articulated in a concise, easy-to-understand manner.

“Pain that is not properly addressed either becomes directed externally or internally or both. In a worst case, this means suicide, murder, or both. The real reason that these attacks are being carried out is because a human being feels an insatiable need to connect, to feel empowered, and to feel significant. And yet, due to the conditions of their life, they have no other way of creating it other than to create terror in other people.  I know this is difficult for us to swallow but if we’re going to solve this issue in our society, it’s a pill we’re going to have to swallow.  School Shooting is not a problem with an individual; it’s a problem created by society itself.

We fail to connect to one another and really see, feel, hear, and understand each other and because of this emotional distance between each other, we feel the world is unsafe and renders us powerless. And because of our unconscious psychology, when we’re put in this position, there are only two roles to identify with: a winner or a loser, the strong or the weak, a victim or a perpetrator. Because of our collective psychology, we are sending a massive, mixed-signal, a mixed message to all of us, including our children, who are the most susceptible. The rift that exists today between the “bad guy” and the “good guy” is a rift that separates us all. It’s a rift that causes loneliness, isolation and also powerlessness to one another. And it’s also a rift that has to end. So, end it in yourself today.”

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Aside from the basement tapes, do you think any new footage will ever surface of the boys ? Footage of them just being themselves and all that

Nope. Unless of course… Sue releases anything else of her choosing during one of her conference presentations (*crosses fingers for a snippet of Dylan before prom video footage*)  or one of their friends comes forward with a book or documentary and they decide to show a clip as part of their media release.  Other than that, not likely at all. Jeffco considers the case closed and in light of all the recent shootings, they would not be so inclined to release any more visual footage of the very infamous shooters.

Do you think that Eric knew how severely depressed Dylan was? That it was one of the biggest driving forces behind his reason to participate in nbk? Or that he just kinda had the idea that he was suicidal?

No, I don’t believe Eric knew or even really internally reflected on whether his friend was depressed, let alone severely depressed. I spoke about this in another post. I think Dylan was pretty good at expressing how pissed off he was about various things – that he hated school, hated his life, couldn’t stand this, that and the other in a similar manner that Eric vocalized his resentment over things. So, Eric just intuited without having to reason it, that Dylan appeared to be close to as homicidal and suicidal as he was. And I say that Eric understood Dylan had some amount of suicidal tendencies to him but didn’t necessarily identify it as ‘depression’. Afterall, from his pov, “depression” was probably equated with something emos express publicly – it’s such a passive, useless way to be. But seeing Dylan as suicidal would mean that dude wanted something extreme as a solution to end a miserable life in this fucked up world.  The two had sussed during their various rants and discussions that they were simpatico in a way that made them implicitly loyal and trustworthy over the idea of carrying out NBK without faltering.  So, I don’t believe that Eric reasoned/used Dylan’s depressed tendencies as a catalyst to get him to partner in NBK.  The two were already both on the same page but in mirroring opposition.  If you have the desire to kill first, you’ll have to die doing it.  If you want to die, you’re going to kill first. They completed each others circuit and each was a driving force, that push-pull catalyst to the other.  They were like a confluence of negative ions in that perfect storm. 

Do you think Kevin and Byron felt guilty after the shootings? Knowing that they weren’t there to help their brothers with their problems?

Sure, of course, they would’ve.  And it’s only natural they’d feel regret and responsibility for not feeling like they were there enough for their younger brothers in retrospect hindsight. Kevin was away at college and Byron was living in an apartment with friends up in Aurora but would visit his parents for weekend Sunday dinner.  They were just doing the normal thing leading their own lives and growing apart from their home roots and parents. But I’m sure they felt bad, a kind of sibling survivor’s guilt, thinking that they could’ve just been more available in making concerted attempts to spend some amount of quality time together or with a touch-base phone call and because they didn’t, they were not able to even realize how hard things were for their 3 years younger bros. There was a disconnection between siblings because of their literal, physical leaving home. Suddenly, Eric and Dylan were like the only child – which I can relate to myself with a few older siblings.  I spoke about this in relation to Byron here.