Saturday Ramblins, Extra (April 25, 1999)

You've heard it said in these pages before in reference to missing and murdered children: "these are my children; these are your children." So are the children of Littleton, Colorado. Another bit of our innocence and sense of well-being died there. Sixteen times over.

What could bring two children to the point where they could manufacture such a horror for other children and their families? What did or didn't happen in the year it allegedly took for them to plan it? Were there no signs or indications obvious to their parents that said something is terribly wrong?

In almost every case of school shootings reported in the last two years, we've learned that the young perpetrators were filled with hate and rage which had found expression through Satanism, violent music, video games or other such negative influences. Can we believe then that cults, certain kinds of rock music or other socially negative influences are the causal agents to drive a kid to kill other kids in so wanton and cold-blooded a manner? I think that is too simplistic an answer.

This is just an educated guess, but I suspect that in many of cases we will find children who were left to raise themselves. This doesn't suggest solely kids from so-called "disadvantaged homes." We know the facts in those cases.

Many young people who align themselves with cults or groups - whether they are religious or otherwise - do so because they've been raised in a moral void. They've had parents who were too busy with other things such as careers and lifestyles to give the children the attention they deserve. They made up for it by giving them things - "advantages," they call them. They've had parents who by attempting to be their kids' buddies were afraid to say "no" lest they lose their kids' love.

Many times over the years I've heard parents aver, "We're not raising our kids in any religion so that when they're adults they can make their own choices." My response to that is not printable here.

Children raised in a moral void either by neglect or a conscious choice on the part of their parents are ripe for the first ideology that comes their way that offers some kind of identity. Stop and look at the things that are available to today's teenager as part of pop culture.

Why is it the vast majority of children can listen to a style of music, which we adults may think way out of line, but still be basically decent and good kids? Yet another, smaller group of children will take it as gospel.

In the first case, those children have been filled with a moral sense and may be using such music as a form of innocent rebellion. (Remember that every generation has found a form of music with which to scare its parents to death. Mine did; yours did. Your kids will.)

In the second case, it is because the children have no gospel.

It is what our children bring to these influences that determines the outcome. If we fill our children with moral and religious values we have at least inoculated them against the evils the world has to offer. Are we guaranteed success in every case, i.e., the perfect child? No. Not by a long shot. There are other variables at work as well.

But at least we give our children a moral leg up and a sense of their own self-worth as well as that of others. We give them a chance. It's up to them to take it. By doing nothing -- by placing material or career values ahead of the universal truths, we raise morally empty vessels that feel like outsiders. They are yearning for a value system that will make them feel like "somebody". There are all too many sick people out there just waiting to fill them up.

I don't have all the facts from the Columbine shootings so I cannot say this was the case in the lives of the two shooters. I suspect, however, it may be part of the truth. Banning guns, some forms of rock music, modes of dress or cults will not solve this problem. So let's not waste our energy and money in that arena beyond reasonable and prudent controls. Most children exposed to these things will never act out in so horrific a fashion as was witnessed last week in Littleton.

It's too late for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. But it's not too late to try and identify and reach out to other empty and lonely children. It is our responsibility as adults. After all, they are my children; they are your children.