20 4 / 2012
Today is April 20, 2012.
Today marks the thirteenth anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.
Last week a local thirteen year old was arrested after police received a tip about a suspected bomb plot and a search of his home confirmed that he did in fact possess the supplies necessary to create an explosive.
Thirteen years ago, two boys opened fire on their classmates, wreaking a havoc that would spawn lock down procedures in schools across the nation in an attempt to prevent this kind of massacre from happening again. But thirteen years later, a little boy who isn’t old enough to remember the horror at Columbine, hatched a similar plan; to hurt those that hurt him.
Thirteen years. In the time it’s taken for this boy to grow up, schools may have become safer, but they’re no kinder.
On the playground this week my son watched a group of five year olds engage in violent play. Kicking, punching, and holding one another on the ground by their throats.
This isn’t about changing the way schools handle bullies. It’s so much bigger than that.
Violence is not synonymous with entertainment. Satisfaction needn’t be from another’s pain. Violent death is real, terrifying, and it is agonizingly painful.
As a parent, as a teacher, as a friend to those who survived Columbine, and in remembrance of those who didn’t, I beg of you here and now:
Be a part of a change. Set an example. Take a stand. Recognize that violence is not natural, normal, or appropriate in our children, it is constructed, and it is cultivated. And it is fucking deadly.
These aren’t the days of our youth, and kids today aren’t just settling the score with a schoolyard brawl. They’re blowing the schoolyard up, and taking everyone with it.
Please. Please, I am begging you to give our children a chance. A chance to live. A chance to thrive. A chance to be safe, and kind.
Give them the chance at a future without violence A future that was brutally stolen from thirteen individuals, thirteen years ago today.
Please read this.
We all need to be the change we wish to see in this world. We need to guide our kids & those around them.
(via bourbonismycopilot)
