This page is a tribute to the students and faculty at the Littleton, Colorado high school. On April 20, 1999 a grievous act of violence occured, taking the lives of students and faculty at the high school. With this page, I hope to bring to all of you information on what has happened in Littleton. I also ask all of you to observe a moment of silence in memorium of those who lost their lives in this act of terrorism. This act did not occur in a large American city, but a quiet suburb, a normally peaceful place. It also happened in a place where children are supposed to feel safe from the world. A place of learning. A place of laughter. Now, many tears are shed as students mourn the passing of friends and teachers. People who will laugh no more, or brighten someone's lives. Those who did not come out are friends, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters. This is an act that should have never happened, yet it did. I ask that everyone remember to always be kind to your loved ones, for this is another example that you may never get another chance to say, "I love you." My deepest heart felt sympathies go out to all of those affected by this great tragedy. I ask those who view this page to e-mail me with your comments on the situation, and or any information you come across. I hope to be able to post more information on this page as it becomes available. I leave you with this thought... "As long as this flame burns, you will always have a place in my heart." 4/21/99 - I would like to thank the 16 people how have e-mailed me the past few hours about this page and I will be including excerpts from these mails this evening when I get home from work. So far this morning at 8:45, there have been 140+ hits in just the few hours this page has been up and running. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and love you all. The update should be ready by 10pm EST. Thanks and God bless. 4/21/99 - It is now 11pm, EST. I am sorry that this update is an hour late. I am extremely overwhelmed by the response I have gotten from this page. It has taken me an hour and a half to get through the first 278 e-mails I have recieved today regarding this site. I never imagined it would reach so many or so far. I have recieved mails from Sweden, Australia, England, Canada, and all 50 states. At my last check of hits, which was at 9:30 EST, there were well over 2000+. Many of you are asking for web addresses to people in Littleton, CO. I ask all of you to let the tragedy to sink in to the people of that community before inundating them with mail. I will try to establish contact with some of the members of that community and ask for their permission to release their email addresses before releasing them on this page. And to answer the question of whether I, myself am from Littleton, I am not. I am from Sandusky, OH, home of Cedar Point amusement park. As I write this, I am in tears, for many reasons. It is wonderful that all of you are concerned with the well being of all those involved in yesterday's tragedy. Just about every morning, I wake up at 6:30 to get my 17 year old brother up and ready for school, then drive him there, dropping him off. I have a total of four relatives who attend that same high school. This morning as I dropped him off, I cried. I know that if something like that were to happen here in this town, there would not be a single law enforcement agent in this world that would stop me from taking up arms of my own and storming in that school to defend my family. Today, I read many headlines in newspapers, all giving conflicting information. Being that I work from 9:30 am until 9pm on most days such as today, it is difficult to get all of the information and sort it out into what is factual and what is not. What information I do have to update this site with is this.... the two assailants who committed this act are Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Both were students at Columbine High School in Littleton. As to the exact number of fatalities, I have not gotten a solid number. I have heard, 16, 19, and 25 as the number of fatalities. On a lighter note, most or all of the people injured at the school have been upgraded in condition as to their medical status. That is the only solid information I have available to me at this time. As I look at the pictures of the two teens involved in taking so many lives, they do not appear troubled. For someone to ask how no one could identified what was going on before it all happened, to you I say, people snap. That is all. No one knows why, and no one knows how or when. People ask where were the parents, to that I say, no one can watch their children 24-7, 365 a year. I am not defending the teens, but I do want everyone to understand that there may never be answers to these questions. I also want everyone to know that all of the e-mails sent to me regarding this site will be personally answered. I attempted to print out the names of all those sending me mail, but was unable to do so. I will be handwriting all of the names down so I can respond to the letters. I have no idea how much time this will take, as I already know that with my limited time, it will already take weeks. Please do not let this discourage you from sending me mail, as I will be writing the names down every night and checking them off as I mail the responses. All responses will be sent on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, as those are the days when I will have the time to respond to them. Once again, I thank you, and God Bless you. I love you all! 4/22/99 - Well, as you can see, I have added a few links tonight where people can visit and express their opinions as well. I also added the CNN site in order for people to get the latest updates on what is happening. I would once again like to thank all of those sending me e-mails. They ae all greatly appreciated. Many issues have been brought up in these e-mails. The first of these issues I would like to address is about people pulling their children out of school and doing home schooling. I realize that all of you feel scared for your children. To you I say, please don't. While you feel that you are making your children safer, you are robbing them of something that home schooling will never give them. When I was in school, I was a member of the band. I cannot begin to express how that helped form me into the person I am today. Even through all the hard work, and the hard times I went through being in band and school, I formed lifelong friendships. I had more fun than anyone could have imagined. I learned more about life being in school than any home schooling could have taught me. I learned social skills that are paramount to being a vital and active part of society. Those skills have gotten me to where I am today. I ask of you, plead with you not to pull your children out of school. You will be hurting them more than you ever know. You will be putting them so far behind the curve that they may never catch up to those who are in school systems. To those of you who are interested in forming groups to rid violence from our schools, there are steps you must take. You have elected officials to be in charge of your children's education. Call them, send letters to them, talk to them in the grocery store. Gather together and voice your opinions as a solid group. Before you do that though, do your homework. Talk to your children and get an idea of what actually goes on in the school. Gather your information and make sure it is correct before approaching the officials in charge of your children. Also, talk to your local police authorities about what information they can give you to help. If you feel that you as a group are not being satisfied, then you need to elect officials who will listen to your pleas. I have also had many e-mails claiming we need to get prayer into school. To this, I agree and disagree. In lieu of sounding like a politician, I support the constitution. When you truly think about it, there are over 50 million students nationwide. Many are not of the Christian faith. Many do not believe in God at all. We may not force upon these children our beliefs. They must figure these beliefs on their own. That is part of school, thinking on your own, figuring things out yourself. Granted, we all need to learn certain things, such as mathematics, science, history, literacy, and other basic things, but religion is not one of the things that we need to teach the children. I am a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Master Mason, and an officer of my lodge. Many of you will not understand what this means, but I am a firm believer in God. You must be in order to be a Master Mason. The one thing that must be understood is that you must believe with your heart, not just your mind. What is taught in school is to be believed in the mind. It is the job of the parents to bring religion to the children, not the schools. I do believe that the children should be able to practice religion as they please on public grounds though, in a manner that is not offensive to people not of their beliefs. We all need to live in harmony with all people. We need to respect their beliefs as well as our own. On another note, I ask a favor of any parents of the slain for permission to post a picture of thier child on this site. If you give me permission to publish a picture on this site, please e-mail me a photo of your child with a name and age. I have recieved many requests for this. I feel it will be an important part of the healing process for all if we can see the faces of those who we grieve for. If you have a picture and would like it on the site, but do not have a scanner, please e-mail me and I will glady let you know immediately how to get the picture and information on the site. If you would also like to add a passage along with the picture, that is also extremely welcome. Once again, I will be responding to each individual e-mail i recieve, no matter how long it takes. I now have around 800 e-mails to respond to, so it will take quite some time. For those of you not expecting a response, let me reassure you, it will come. As for an update, the final death count for this incident is 15. This is thankfully lower than the initial reports of 25. Also today, the school was once again sealed tight as another bomb was found. This bomb weighed approxiamately 35lbs. A bomb this size was designed to destroy the entire cafeteria area. The bomb has been proerly disposed of with no injuries to anyone. I appologize for the updates being so small and slow in coming, for I have not had much time to concentrate on getting updates. I thank all of you for your responses, and hope they keep coming in. I hold all of you dear to my heart. I leave you tonight witha poem sent to me by an AOL member, Saer Sida. I belive credit for this poem is to be given to Shart858, also an AOL member. "For the Community of Littleton, Colorado." Many lives were taken today, many before their time, It isn't easy to understand, all of this violence and crime. As we watch the story unfold on TV, as we ask the question "why?" Let us pray for those in the community, who now have to say goodbye. Goodbyes to treasured children, goodbyes to precious friends, goodbyes to parents and teachers, oh please let this all end. Let it be known to all that, the world is smaller today, we lost so many good people, when they all passed away. I ask you all to join me now, to voice this tearful prayer, please pass this on to all you know, and let's see how many care. Before you fall asleep tonight, consider doing this, think of those who died today, Dear God, in heaven, may they find bliss. God Bless you all. 4/25/99 - Hello again. Last night, I recieved an e-mail with pictures and brief descriptions of those in the pictures. I will be working on getting them posted on this page as soon as possible. I would like to ask all who visit this page today to turn on a light in memory of those lost. I would also like to leave you today with a song by Shawn Mullins. The title of the song is called "Shimmer." If you have not heard it before, it is his newest release. Please call your radio station and request it for those who lost their lives. It is one of my favorite songs and I think it is very appropriate. "Shimmer" Sharing with us what he knows, shining eyes are big and blue. And all around him water flows, this world to him is new, this world to him is new. To touch a face, to kiss a smile, new eyes see no race. The essence of a child, the essence. He's born to shimmer, he's born to shine, he's born to radiate. He's born to live, he's born to love, but we'll teach him not to hate. True love, it is a rock smoothed over by a stream. No ticking of a clock, truly measures what that means, truly measures what that means. And this thing we call our time, heard a brilliant woman say, she said you know it's crazy how I want to capture mine. I think I love this woman's way, I think I love this woman's, way she shimmers, the way she shines, the way she radiates. The way she lives, the way she loves, the way she never hates. Sometimes I think of all of this that can surround me, I know it all as being mine. But she kisses me and wraps herself around me, she gives me love, she gives me time, and I feel fine, I feel fine. But time I cannot change, so here's to looking back. You know I drink a whole bottle of my pride, and I toast to change, to keep those demons off my back, just get these demons off my back. 'Cause I want to shimmer, I want to shine, I want to radiate. I want to live, I want to love, I want to try to learn how not to hate, try not to hate. We're born to shimmer, we're born to shine, we're born to radiate. We're born to live, we're born to love, we're born to never hate.
Added Links
Comemeorial
Columbine High
Light A Candle
Sorry For Your Loss
CNN News Update
