Comments on: On fault and blame and Columbine http://seattle.metblogs.com/2006/03/28/on-fault-and-blame-and-columbine/ Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:32:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Zee http://seattle.metblogs.com/2006/03/28/on-fault-and-blame-and-columbine/comment-page-1/#comment-2074 Zee Thu, 30 Mar 2006 19:50:11 +0000 http://seattle.metblogs.com/2006/03/28/on-fault-and-blame-and-columbine/#comment-2074 Mostly well said. I haven't any sympathy for Harris and Klebold. Like countless others, I experienced some bullying, some of it quite atrocious. I coped without ever once fantasizing of shooting up the school. I daydreamed about being more successful--richer, famous, better-looking, more loved--than them and formed my own social groups. (Incidentally, if you read past the hype about Columbine you find that the murderers weren't quite "outcasts", they did, in fact, have their own social network.) I have actually seen less victim-blaming in the mass media than I have in the reaction to it in the local online networks. Over in the Seattle LJ community, for example, certain people keep saying over and over again: "What was a 14 year old doing out at that hour?" as if it's common for 14 year olds to be shot at house parties and, really, the kid should've known better. That's the attitude that frustrates me. I don't entirely disagree that the best place for a kid that age to be at that hour is probably not a party but there are no universal guarantees of safety and the endless harping on what the victims were or weren't doing is disturbing to me. Mostly well said. I haven’t any sympathy for Harris and Klebold. Like countless others, I experienced some bullying, some of it quite atrocious. I coped without ever once fantasizing of shooting up the school. I daydreamed about being more successful–richer, famous, better-looking, more loved–than them and formed my own social groups. (Incidentally, if you read past the hype about Columbine you find that the murderers weren’t quite “outcasts”, they did, in fact, have their own social network.)

I have actually seen less victim-blaming in the mass media than I have in the reaction to it in the local online networks. Over in the Seattle LJ community, for example, certain people keep saying over and over again: “What was a 14 year old doing out at that hour?” as if it’s common for 14 year olds to be shot at house parties and, really, the kid should’ve known better. That’s the attitude that frustrates me. I don’t entirely disagree that the best place for a kid that age to be at that hour is probably not a party but there are no universal guarantees of safety and the endless harping on what the victims were or weren’t doing is disturbing to me.

]]> By: Colin http://seattle.metblogs.com/2006/03/28/on-fault-and-blame-and-columbine/comment-page-1/#comment-2073 Colin Tue, 28 Mar 2006 22:32:59 +0000 http://seattle.metblogs.com/2006/03/28/on-fault-and-blame-and-columbine/#comment-2073 Well said. Well said.

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