About Me

My name is Jonathan, and I am a 24 year old sociology student from Chicago, IL. This blog will be discussing politics to every extreme, and covering many other topics including race, religion, and all social issues that are happening right now. Well known by my friends and foes, I am very liberal and an atheist. This blog serves as a resistance to the enslavement of our generation. Does anyone have the heart to stand with me?

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The Columbine Massacre: More Important Than Your Ridiculous Weed Holiday

I'd like to start this post off saying that a "holiday" for smoking marijuana is completely ridiculous.  Get off your couch, wipe the chips off of your shirt, and celebrate something that actually matters - which is the point of a holiday.  Your drug habit doesn't matter.

Today is April 20th, marking the anniversary of a historic, yet tragic day in American history... The Columbine High School massacre.  When only occurring 12 years ago, there is a handful of Americans who've really just chosen to forget about that day, when 2 students executed numerous classmates, teachers, and injured a handful more.  It seems that now, with so many incidents on the news about teenage suicide because of bullying, we'd really try to keep Columbine in mind.  What makes teenagers do this?  These things have happened plenty of times, maybe not covered on TV as much because of other issues (race, social class of the school, etc.), but they do happen.  Well, there are a number of factors, and violent music, movies, and video games have NOTHING to do with it.

High school can be one of the hardest times in a person's life.  And a large reason comes from bullying.  It's in our nature to hate what is different.  We thrive on making others feel lower than us.  And even when so many lives have been lost due to bullying, society doesn't seem to care.  We throw it on CNN for a week, its forgotten quickly, and then we go back to watching our "reality" TV.  Parents don't seem to care and neither do teachers, until a student chooses to fight back, which is essentially what happened on April 20th, 1999.  If you've ever been bullied in your life, you know as well as I do that you would love nothing more than to fight back.  You would love nothing more than to be in control for once.  I am in NO WAY saying that what they did was right, because it was not...  What I'm saying is "what did you expect to happen?"  

I'll also ask, "where were the parents?"  When these students showed extreme signs of anger and violence in their personal lives, where were their parents?  People don't just snap, with no prior sign of possible problems.  These 2 killers showed many signs, in which one could easily see that they were troubled.  Maybe it's because this was a middle class town, that nobody wanted to blame the parents because they are so innocent.  Maybe nobody wants to admit that middle class families have just as many issues in the home as lower class families.  It seems that this entire incident was painted with a conservative brush, making the case that entertainment was the problem.  Maybe their game playing or heavy metal music was an outlet, or an escape.  I'm sure they probably listened to these musicians to try and cope or connect with somebody, considering they couldn't relate to peers.  

But this music, these games did not make them buy the guns, it did not tell them to massacre a school.  Society did.  And that is the point of this post.  Society created these killers.  The American culture is extremely violent and greedy, almost always fighting a war or being involved in some kind of conflict.  We admire the jock, and make fun of the geek.  We glorify masculinity, and make fun of intellect.  Why?  Well, that is really just the culture of America.  We've passed our days as a global leader.  We've passed our days as a nation of prosperity and design, a country of invention.  Today, people just don't give a shit.  

I really hope that in the near future, people begin to give a shit.  Columbine can be a representation of current and future global conflicts.  America has bullied the Middle East for decades, yet we are so extremely shocked when they attack us on September 11th, 2001.  I really want to make it clear, that I AM NOT saying it was okay or agreeing with terrorism, but when you really look at it, they are similar incidents.  We drop bombs... bullies drop punches.  We invade land, create an empire, and control territory... bullies do the same with a school. 

I write this post as a child of the world... I write this post with hopes that America will one day return to its days of glory, where we weren't a global bully, but a global leader.  Maybe when we stop being assholes to everyone else, our citizens will stop being assholes to each other. 



3 comments:

  1. "I'd like to start this post off saying that a "holiday" for smoking marijuana is completely ridiculous. Get off your couch, wipe the chips off of your shirt, and celebrate something that actually matters - which is the point of a holiday."

    Holidays are meant to be fun. Do you think most people reflect on the significance of New Years, St. Patrick's day, or Halloween? No, they just use them as excuses to let loose and party. Which, I think, is a good thing.

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  2. those holidays still acting have meaning behind them... more than smoking a plant. you can have a celebration, but dedicating a day? i don't agree with that.

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