Axis Mundi X discussion

http://www.salon.com/books/int/2009/0...

In "Columbine," Cullen is surprisingly but appropriately modest (appropriately, because it makes the book better) about his own role in exploding trite Columbine myths. You'll read his book and learn that the smartest crime investigators were frustrated and bedeviled by national and local media jumping on specious favorite theories about the killers and their victims — theories that investigators knew from the beginning weren't true. The killers weren't part of the Trench Coat Mafia, they weren't gay, they didn't target jocks or minority students. Eric Harris was a psychopath, but Dylan Klebold was a depressive who'd shown little capacity for hatred and violence.

Maybe most explosive, against the backdrop of the strong suburban Denver evangelical culture, was the story that student Cassie Bernall was killed because of her Christian faith, after she said "yes" when Dylan Klebold asked if she believed in God. The tale simply wasn't true, despite the fact that Bernall's mother, Misty, and the girl's evangelical church launched an campaign around Cassie's martyrdom that culminated in Misty Bernall's moving memoir, "She Said Yes," which wound up on the New York Times bestseller list and won her interviews with "Larry King Live" and "The Today Show."

What you won't learn, except in the footnotes, is that it was Cullen who broke most of the crucial Columbine myth-debunking stories and expanded on others. He was an army of one against the dozens sent by large national dailies, the news magazines, and local and national television networks. But he had key advantages: He lived there, he's charming and ingratiating, he's got an instinct for bullshit, and he's got a heart bigger than most hearts I know. He suffered through the Columbine story with the locals after the national stars went away; he also had the distance from local politics that a national outlet provided him. Still, what got him the story was his passion and smarts and sensitivity — he knew how to wrangle information out of traumatized teens and families and investigators because he was traumatized, too; I'll never forget some of our conversations when he talked through his own despair at what he was seeing.

yeah, I agree. I really will be curious to see what this writer has uncovered. Sounds like important reading in our time. I am myself baffled by the epidemic of school shootings in our culture. And no one has put their finger on it in my observation.

yeah, I know. All I can think of is that whole thing about rats in a cage. The higher the population, the crazier they all get.

It's interesting how Wally Lamb's latest novel, THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED, has a lot about Columbine in it and grapples with a lot of this It does not reinforce the media myths.

I think BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE is fantastic. Ignore the Michael Moore factor and just go see it for what it is.

I have a mixed review of Lamb's novel. I preferred his second one, but THE HOUR...is worthh reading, even if it's "merely" good, not great, in my opinion.

I thought Bowling for Columbine was worth seeing, even though I really can't stand Michael Moore anymore. You have to take him with a grain of salt, but the film does cover a lot of interesting information. It does not come up with any big simplified answers. It does explore some (even though tainted by MM's wingnuttery).

I thought you were referring to Lamb: The gospel according to biff; Christ childhood friend...

I kept asking myself WTF does that have to do with the thread... after re-reading it I feel stupid... but in a funny way.

Interestingly, there isn't an epidemic of school shootings. School violence has been decreasing since the mid-1980s. The epidemic is in the media coverage of the events that do happen.

I met Kip Kinkel a few years ago, the most famous "school shooter" prior to Columbine. He's a really likeable freckle-faced kid who is seriously schizophrenic. Terrible hallucinations and delusions about half of the time despite the best meds he can get in the Oregon prison system (which means money no object). Despite his serious and obvious mental illness, he got tried as an adult at 15; I'm just glad he got to spend 10 years in the Oregon juvenile system, where they have excellent psychiatry and mental health intervention.

the mental health situation in this country is unfortunate at best. If it weren't for parental advocacy groups it would be even worse than it is. We have locally no fewer than a dozen schizophrenic folks who obviously live at the margins, off their meds most of the time, wandering around town muttering and shouting at trees and lampposts, in need of a shower and some decent clothing. They get by somehow, it seems. I know there are a couple of homeless shelters here and a food kitchen. But the closest mental health facility was in Napa and that has been shut down, as far as I understand. A close friend of mine with two small children became seriously unhinged a few years ago, to the point that we feared for her life and her children's lives. I tried to find a way for her to be taken inpatient for a while, but there really was no facility for it. Kaiser doesn't really have anything. And even more facilities have been shut down since then. It's appalling.

That is truly shocking, especially if one judges a society by how it treats its most vulnerable.

Late to the party - and really rather irresponsible as well - I read this one and reviewed it and then read Going Postal by Mark Ames which is by way of being a counterblast. Interesting stuff, so long as you can view it from a distance as I can.