With their country founded on genocide, slavery, and racial hatred, Americans seem to suffer from amnesia about how their violent past informs the present. The bomber, who was distraught at rising school taxes that threatened his farm, had just killed his wife and farm animals and blown up his own home, and was killed as he tried to blow up a car near the school. For example, in 1927, near Lansing Michigan, 45 people (including 38 children aged 6-8) were killed when a local farmer and school board member blew up a schoolhouse with 500 pounds of dynamite. And the current wave does not seem to be over yet, with several incidents reported after Littleton in which students have threatened or shot each other.Īlthough Littleton was dubbed the 'worst case of school violence in US History,' this really reflects either journalistic laziness or some sort of social denial. Like teen suicide pacts, postal worker rampages, and fast-food restaurant massacres of the previous decade, the school shootings have come in waves. From Mississippi and Arkansas, to Kentucky and Oregon, images of teenagers shooting up schools have become commonplace. Over the past 18 months, 12 people were killed and over 40 injured in seven similar incidents of suburban and rural school shootings, not to mention the numerous and not as widely publicized incidents of school violence in urban areas. With a major election year approaching, other politicians used the incident to push their own cynical and hypocritical agendas, from gun control and censorship to school surveillance. Ohio Representative James Trafficant urged Americans to attend more church, suggesting that 'people who pray together are not likely to kill one another,' oblivious to the long and horrid history of religious wars and persecution at the core of Western civilization. Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore joined the crusade against violent media, deflecting criticism from the multiple sites of violence in America. President Clinton urged school children to use 'words not weapons' to solve their problems, just after he ordered another round of bombing on Belgrade.

Meanwhile, experts jostled to gain attention for their totalizing theories of youth angst, social immorality, parental breakdown, and media violence as the primary cause, and others called for beefed up school security and weapons legislation.Īmerican officialdom soon entered the fray, revealing the schizoid character of American public discourse. Soon, when a large bomb was discovered in the school, police began seeking a conspiracy. But April 20 was also found to be 'International Marijuana Day,' fueling speculation of drug abuse. Other observers saw connections to white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups, citing the black student who was among the dead, and noting that the incident occurred on the 110th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth. In often contradictory and partial accounts, the youths were said be part of an outcast group known as the 'trenchcoat mafia,' who were connected to 'goth' culture and who had a vendetta against the 'jocks' that taunted them. Over the next few days, as the events in Littleton had receded somewhat into the usual corporate media stew of consumerism and the latest war, speculation about the incident ran rampant. National news outlets entirely pre-empted normal programming for several hours afterwards, in a bizarre spectacle of suffering, anguish, and confusion. When the smoke cleared, 12 students and 1 teacher lay dead, with many more wounded, and Americans were left to sort out another seemingly senseless act of what has come to be called 'teen violence.' Law enforcement and the media soon swarmed the site as investigators looked for clues and reporters sought answers. On 20 April 1999, armed to the teeth with bombs and automatic weapons, two teenaged students named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stormed into their suburban high school in Littleton, Colorado, and carried out a horrific display of murder and mayhem before committing suicide.

Social amnesia definition