Actuality After the Deadly Aftermath

A decade after Harris and Klebold made Columbine a synonym for rage, new information — including several books that analyze the tragedy through diaries, e-mails, appointment books, videotape, police affidavits and interviews with witnesses, friends and survivors — indicate that much of what the public has been told about the shootings is wrong.

The yahoo news website featured a story linked to the USA today paper all about Columbine ten years later.

When the deadly duo, Harris and Klebold, first brought their wrath upon students, a lot of people thought that they had been picked on, or that they targeted certain ethnicities. The aforementioned is no longer credited as truth, but mere rumors and gossip.

The pair had built over 100 bombs, and planned to set them off in the cafeteria, but they were so badly wired that they never went off. Instead, the couple picked off as many students as possible.

Klebold and Harris also wanted to kill journalists, police officers, and any other help that arrived on the scene, but the bombs they planted in their cars never went off either.

Harris and Klebold were essentially terrorists, and they did have friends,’ but they “weren’t accepted by the kids,” they believed mattered.

One believed he was God, and the other suffered from depression and rage.

I think it’s sad that things turned out they way they did, but it’s good to know that their plans were not carried out to their fullest potential.

The reason the two grabbed so much attention, is because their murder spree was the first to be widely publicized on television.

The media has the power to persuade people, and twist stories, like a cult, but it also has the potential to spread many experiences, so that we don’t find ourselves in sticky situations or sketchy binds.

I am glad that someone decided to clear up the rumors, and write an extensive piece on Harris and Klebold, a piece of writing that offered the simple and honest truth.

Do you love me, Do you Surfer Girl/Guy?

Over the winter, even with my spring suit and rubber leggings, I don’t get much time to grab my 7 ft. fun board, and hit up the small surf in Jacksonville. If we’re lucky, we get some five to six foot sets, but such a treat generally only occurs when a hurricane is forming offshore.

Most of the time, we get two and three foot sets of baby waves.

I’ve been surfing since the eighth grade, just for the fun of it. I don’t keep up with the media aspect, but it always has been brought to my attention that I don’t fit the “surfer type.”

You know the types, the "beach bums, drop outs, and stoners" or so I’ve heard.

However, surfing is much more than that, and I’m glad that the media has been presenting it in a positive light.

In an event called “Surf with the Stars,” kids travel up to 13 hours for a rare chance to go surfing with their heroes. Even if the water is freezing, it’s not a deterrent to anyone participating in the event; the event is equivalent to a fan of Tiger Woods being able to golf with him for a day.

A 15 year old, Keanu Asing, won a Quicksilver ISA World Championship in Ecuador yesterday in the 16 and under age division.

It used to be that surfing wasn’t a serious sport, and it’s nice that it’s being taken more seriously by the media these days.

Surfing works out just about every muscle in your body, and it’s great to just kick back and catch a few waves.

Everything bad falls apart.

High-Definition surf cameras for premium members were released by Surfline today, as well.

For nearly 15 years, this website has been delivering live beach and wave imagery through their extensive camera network that has reached beaches from Hawaii to California.

Premium users will now be able to check local conditions and breaks through HD feed, but regular users will still be able to access over 100 working cameras.

It’s great that the internet has made it possible for people to catch many good swells, and it’s even better that surfing has become a sport for people looking for competition, and for those that just want to have fun.

Energizing Entertainment

DVDs are generally released on Tuesdays. Around six o’clock this evening I tried to check out the film Bolt (released today) from either the Blockbuster on Southside Blvd., or the Blockbuster at the corner of Beach Blvd. and St. Johns Bluff, but both were all out.

Luckily, my boyfriend came to the rescue, and found a copy at his local Blockbuster.

The Entertainment industry is fairing better than most in these days of economic despair. DVD rentals for Franchise Entertainment Group, which runs the Video Ezy and Blockbuster home video chains, are up more than 10 per cent in 2009.

Summit Home Entertainment said first-day sales of its modern day vampire love story Twilight (released March 22) sold more than 3 million DVD units.

I Love You, Man and Knowing were just released nationwide this past Friday, and already they are receiving better reviews from the public as opposed to the critics.

Even internet movie websites such as Netflix are on the rise. Netflix is pairing up with the network savvy Facebook and gets a chance to attract new subscribers from 175 million members.

I think that it’s great that people are still embracing art, and culture, but at the same time I feel sad that we need entertainment and that we cannot entertain ourselves.

I vote that instead of cocooning in our homes, watching the latest movies, or playing the latest video games, we should instead go on walks, ride our bikes, or even play a game of Urban Sprinting.

Green Rivers, Green Trees, Green Clothes.

Well, it’s Saint Patrick’s Day today folks. That means we get to wear green, feast, have parades, and get drunk.

If we’re Irish who follow the faith that stems from Christianity, we get to skip lent for this day.

The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737, and was believed to have been celebrated first and foremost in Boston, but today it’s all over the news, and celebrated across the span of America.

In Savannah, their 185th parade brought thousands to the streets. The Chicago River received an annual dose of green dye over the weekend. In New York the St. Patrick’s Day Parade does not include any commercial aspects like floats or cars; approximately 150,000 to 250,000 people march before an estimated 2 million spectators.

In the olden days, Gays and lesbians -- expected ordinarily to live in shadows -- were granted license during the festivities to cross-dress and act out different gender identities.

Even O'Bama is celebrating St. Patrick's Day.


Why exactly do we have all of these festivities, and who is St. Patrick?

Well, St. Patrick is Ireland's National Apostle. After escaping prison, he helped convert Irish Protestants across Ireland, and set up many churches. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D.

That’s not the only reason why people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day either.

The Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845. As a result, close to a million poor, uneducated, Catholic Irish began to pour into America to escape starvation. They were rejected by protestant Americans, but soon began to gain political power in a political organization known as “the green machine.”

Annual St. Patrick's Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, and in 1948, President Truman attended New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in America.

While you’re out there celebrating today, and perhaps late into the night, take a moment to reflect and give thanks for the sacrifices made by St. Patrick, and the Irish people, who brought this lovely custom to America.

Even though we’re in an Economic crisis, it’s great to know that we uphold such lovely traditions.

Hop on the Suicide Bandwagon

Suicide is a very controversial issue among societies today and it is primarily considered taboo in our culture, but for newspapers today and television stations, it’s become something of a routine trend. For a lot of news groups, it’s a way to tweak a plotline for for a predictable ending, death and higher ratings.

The Boston Herald relates the issue of suicide to unemployment mentioning that “Hotline calls rose to 11,000 last month, up from 8,400 in February 2008 - a 31 percent jump. In January, the commonwealth’s suicide hotline, which takes calls from Boston to western Massachusetts, fielded 2,900 extra calls - a 38 percent increase over January 2008.” On one of their railroad tracks (MBTA) five people have committed suicide in this year alone. There were only eight last year.

If that isn’t enough entertainment for you, another suicide bomber in Iraq killed more than 30 people west of Baghdad. “The bombing follows a series of violent incidents across Iraq, including a suicide attack outside a Baghdad police academy that killed 28 people Sunday. The high-profile attacks come after a year in which violence dropped dramatically.”

What caught my attention most though is a story about a young teen who committed suicide after being belligerently battered with words and objects by students and classmates at her former school in Ohio. Her name was Jesse Logan.

Jesse Logan hung herself in her closet because for months she had been taunted after her boyfriend sent a nude photo of her to classmates and friends’ around campus in a new phenomenon among young teens called “sexting.” Sexting is a form of sex through internet texting.

MSNBC reports that her mother has already been through “six lawyers” in a conquest for justice. I hope that justice is served. Unfortunately some of her former students still hold the belief that she’s a whore who essentially had what was coming to her. "It's her responsibility to make sure like pictures of herself don't get around the school, but if she wants it to, then it's up to her," said Mason sophomore Amanda Eads.

I have noticed that some reporters have taken measures to report on sensitive issues (like suicide) in a more empathetic manner.

This means a lot to me.

Suicide is a sensitive subject and can be caused for many reasons. It can be caused by the death of a loved one, an insane conquest for power, or even by a chemical imbalance in the brain, but it can also be prevented.

We should control our actions and recognize when they positively or negatively affect peoples’ emotions, and above all we should take suicide threats seriously.

Powdery White Stuff

When I think of powdery white stuff, I’m not thinking cocaine; I’m reminded of sliding down slippery slopes of snow on a sled at my cousins’ house a few years ago. I think of the huge snowman we built, it was about as tall as a doorway, and about as big around as two people put together.

Such was not the case for eastern states such as Virginia, New York, New Hampshire, and parts of the Carolinas.

Even though we haven’t received snow in Florida, we’ve felt the bitter cold, but we’ve been luckier than up north.

In the Carolinas, schools were closed in several counties. The snowstorm caused power-outages for tens of thousands, contributed to several wrecks Sunday night that shut a 22-mile stretch of I-85 near the S.C.-N.C. line for about eight hours, and some patches of snow may not melt for a couple of weeks in some counties.

In Washington between 3 and 12 inches of snow fell. The weather contributed to four deaths on roads in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and on Long Island. The storm was also blamed for 350 crashes in New Jersey, and a Maryland official counted about 50 cars in the ditch on one stretch of highway.

Three on-air staffers at WABC/Ch. 7 spun their personal vehicles while on their way to cover the heavy snow, almost becoming accident statistics themselves.

Although the snow storm packed a lot of damage, it could have been worse.

As much as I love snow, and as admirable as it was for so many networks to cover the snowstorm—as it made it’s way across the east coast and into parts of Georgia—I’m smart enough to say stay inside during rough weather.

When it all calms down, go out and make snow angels!

13 Taking Care of 50

“A 2005 nationwide study suggested that about 3 percent of households with children ages 8 to 18 included child caregivers,” wrote Pam Belluck of the New York Times in her article entitled “In Turnabout, Children Take Caregiver Role.” This article featured the ups and downs in the lives of children who are primary caregivers.

We usually imagine home caregivers as middle-age parents who dress their parents, and tend to their disabilities, Alzheimer’s, or some form of cancer. We never entertain the idea of 12 and 13 year olds being primary caregivers, but this situation is more common than you think.

Parents and grandparents being provided for suffer from a large array of diseases including multiple sclerosis, bladder cancer, diabetes, and colitis, and extend to caring for parents who are crippled or blind. The children must administer medication, bathe their disabled parents or grandparents, give up regular activities, and some even drop out of school. Some children even rebel against their parents and run away or “beat them with canes.”

On the up side, children have the potential to mature at a faster rate.

There are special programs dedicated to the education, recognition, and support of children who are primary caregivers and one such program is the Caregiving Youth Project.

Children who are primary caregivers obtain such titles because of their culture. Others become primary caregivers because they’re too poor to afford health care or they come from single-parent homes.

I personally believe that it is immoral to place that much responsibility on a child. Granted, that our parents raise us and I understand that life can drop unexpected situations in our life.

I feel that medical help should be provided for those in need. We shouldn’t have a system that wants to take away a child’s right to be around their parent or parents’ if the parent(s) can not provide for themselves, and that is what keeps these child caregivers in the dark. They cannot get the help they need without fear of expulsion from their family by the state.