'Columbine' Pursues Elusive Truth of Event

Of all of the books I've read this year, one that I'm certain will stay with me forever is Columbine, written by a former college classmate of mine, Dave Cullen. Initially I wasn't certain why I would want to read a book about the horrifying massacre at a Colorado high school 10 years later, but once I started, it was so compelling that I finished it in two days.

The book is as much about truth as it is about that event, and how truth becomes clouded, distorted, intentionally obscured and even lost in the coverage of a tragic, emotional experience. Although we were taught in journalism school that our stories would be the first draft of history, Columbine demonstrates that it is sometimes nearly impossible to correct an error in that first draft if it captures the imagination of the public. Instead, the corrected truth is rejected in favor of a more appealing tale.

I thought I knew the story of Columbine until I read Dave's book. Now I know just how wrong I had it, and how sometimes the truth takes years to actually see the light of day in spite of what appears to be close scrutiny by all sorts of media reporters.

Dave's book is more relevant than ever now that the massacre at Ft. Hood has demonstrated the exact same scenario, only involving a military officer who exhibited obvious signs of mental instability which were passed off as something far less serious by those who simply did not want to see the truth. In addition, the initial story of how a woman police officer shot and stopped Nidal Hasan from his shooting spree was widely reported, but the later correction that another officer was involved was covered with fewer words and flair. It will be interesting to see if people get that wrong in the future, too, just like in Columbine.

Here are some of the things that I learned from Dave's book that I didn't know:

• There were warning signs for two years of what was to come, and numerous people were given clues of the intentions of the students. No one acted on what they knew. The police never followed up on knowledge of credible threats against other students.
• The story of the Christian girl who was said to have answered one of the shooters that she believed in God and then was shot -- which even inspired her mother to write a book about it -- did not in fact do so. She was shot and killed without saying anything. Another girl was the one who spoke and then was shot. The fundamentalist Christians who liked the story refused to accept the truth.
• A teacher and possibly some students bled to death because of the ineptitude of the SWAT team in reaching them. Since then, the protocol for dealing with active shooters has changed, as demonstrated at Virginia Tech, when security sought to actively stop them instead of treating it as a hostage situation.
• Bullying and Goth culture had nothing to do with the rage of the shooters. Eric Harris was a psychopath with Nihilistic views. Dylan Klebold was suicidal.
• Neither shooter was raised in church. Klebold went with his family to church for four months, then they dropped out. He desperately needed spiritual guidance, but never got it. His parents, however, finally got spiritual counseling after the murders and his suicide. Unfortunately, the minister who supplied it was shunned by members of his own church afterward, and later became a prison chaplain.
• A fight over a monument of crosses for each of the students who died, including the shooters, ensued primarily by one of the parents of a murdered student. Some are still angry and have yet to forgive the shooters.

A lot of lives were destroyed by the event, yet many of the young people were resilient. Some have continued in their faith since those dark days; others may never forgive and find peace.

Dave spent years trying to get at the truth, too, some of which was hidden by the police who were embarrassed by their mistakes before, during and after the shootings. It took his book to set the record straight, since other books still repeated some of the errors of early reporting.

The word "truth" is used at least 192 times in the Bible. The greatest truth of all, of course, is the word of God and the truth of his existence and role in our lives. You could even say that speaking truth is a holy act. Of course, those who open their hearts to God already know the truth of the living spirit. Dave Cullen walked in truth in his book, so may he be blessed by that for opening the eyes of many to what transpired. Only good will come of it.