A blast from the past.

What follows is a copy of an article I wrote for The Consuming Fire, a youth ministry newsletter that I published in the nineties. This was written shortly after the Columbine High School masacre in 1999. Though, thankfully there have been no Columbine-like incidents in sometime, the basic thoughts conveyed in the article do still apply to today.   Jim

A Closer Look At the Columbine High Tragedy

LITTLETON, COLORADO: Tuesday, April 20, 1999 was a day that started just like every other day at Littleton’s Columbine High School. I won’t rehash all of the sordid details about how that day ended for the students. I’m sure none of us will ever forget the news accounts of that very dark, tragic day. I would instead like to look at some issues that you probably won’t hear in the mainstream media. I will identify what I believe to be the cause(s) and the solution(s) to the growing problem of school violence in this country.

We have allowed a climate to be created in our society that is ripe for this kind of behavior. We have allowed God to be removed from our public schools. We have seen the concepts of discipline, corporal punishment, and basically any idea of the difference between right and wrong be belittled, demonized, and done away with in our classrooms. Teachers fail to discipline students for fear of being sued, fired, or having to face physical retaliation from students or their parents. There is a group of people that have this whacked out idea that spanking, or paddling, a child is the equivalent of child abuse. And, somehow, they have managed to convince society at large that this is the case. The fruits of their efforts have been on display over the past 24 months in towns like Jonesboro Arkansas, Pearl Mississippi, Paducha Kentucky, etc., and of course their crowning achievement, the tragedy that struck Littleton Colorado. I hope they realize what they have unleashed on our society. I wonder if they are proud of their accomplishments?

Another problem is that of inattentive parents. You know the ones I’m talking about. They work 50, 60, maybe 70 or more hours a week. They never spend time with their kids, and don’t know what is going on in their lives. As a result, the kids are running around doing whatever they want to do, with nobody to care enough to see that they are not putting themselves or others in danger. We as parents have to decide what is more important, our careers, or our kid's lives? How many families do know where both mom and dad work lots of hours just so they can have more stuff? The classic excuse is “we want to have enough money to send junior to the best college”. I’m sorry, no sale. What junior really needs, and in most cases wants, is for either mom or dad to stay at home with him full time. I’m reminded of a quote I heard some years ago. It goes like this; “One hundred years from now, it will not matter how big my house was, how fancy my car was, or how much money I had in the bank. What will matter is that the world will be a better place because I was important in the life of a child”. Are you most important in the life of your child, or your job? Why have kids at all, if all you intend to do is spend all of your time at work, at the mall, or on the golf course and let an outsider raise your kid(s)?

There is hope. We can turn things around. We can work to see God put back in our classrooms. We can work to see discipline without fear of reprisal brought back to our schools and homes. We can destroy the societal myth that our importance is based on how much stuff we have, and how nice our stuff is. We can get our priorities straightened out and get back to what really matters. That is, if we want to. I’m willing to give it a shot. Are you?