By Danny Huizinga
The 14th anniversary of the Columbine shooting occurred last Saturday. As we remember the tragic massacre, we should remember it as it was and avoid perpetuating myths.
Dave Cullen’s book “Columbine” demonstrates the consequences of media misinformation. The book’s glowing reviews and awards from many sources are a testament to his extensive research.
Cullen spent 10 years sifting through hundreds of interviews, thousands of police records and the killers’ journals and tapes. He spoke personally to survivors of the massacre, police officers, investigators and journalists.
In his book, Cullen dispels many of the popular myths surrounding Columbine, myths that persist to this day. By immersing himself in life after Columbine, Cullen also offers a stunning perspective on the resilience and courage of the victims’ families.
One of the most entrenched Columbine myths is the perception of the shooters as outcasts. In Slate in 2004, Cullen wrote a summary of the killers’ personalities.
This piece was later summarized by David Brooks of the New York Times. His publisher added, “What is shocking about the Columbine shooting is just how ordinary these two boys seemed.
“Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold loved their parents, did their homework, worked at the local pizzeria, and — contrary to widely reported accounts — were well-liked by their peers.”
The killers’ true motivations are also shocking. Columbine is often characterized as a response, a targeting of the bullies that had allegedly harassed the shooters, Eric and Dylan. However, after reading the killers’ journals, Cullen and the detectives concluded differently, Cullen said: “Columbine was fundamentally different from the other school shootings. It had not really been intended as a shooting at all. Primarily, it had been a bombing that failed. Detectives let go of the targeting theory immediately. It had been sketchy to begin with, and now it was completely disproved. The media never shook it off. They saw what happened at Columbine as a shooting and the killers as outcasts targeting jocks. They filtered every new development through that lens.”
Another alarming revelation comes from witnesses to the “martyrdom” of Cassie Bernall. As the story goes, the shooters asked Cassie if she believed in God, then shot her when “She Said Yes” (the title of a book later published by her mother). The story truly is an uplifting tale of faith, but it is not factual. Eyewitnesses, a 9-1-1 call recording and the original “earwitness” of the story completely disproved the account.
What can we learn from all this? We can learn how little we know. Thousands of miles away, we try to analyze what drove this recent bombing in Boston. From media sound bites, we become psychologists and FBI detectives, testing theories and debating what the true cause was. In a few years, some of us may realize how wrong we were.
A major lesson from this book is that the truth will never be universally realized and accepted. No amount of evidence can dispel the general public’s insistence on being right. However, Dave Cullen has done a stellar job demonstrating the type of investigation that can lead to the truth, even if it takes 10 years.
Danny Huizinga is a sophomore Baylor Business Fellow from Chicago. He manages the political blog Consider Again and writes for The Washington Times Communities. Follow him on Twitter at @HuizingaDanny.
