The end of Columbine was....fine. The writing was interesting and elegant as always, but there was nothing that blew me away at the very end. Around the 3/4 mark, we found out that Cassie Bernall really wasn't the one who said "Yes" in the library. When one of the killers asked if she believed in God, it was really Val who said yes. She survived, yet she had trouble telling the real story. Word had gotten out that it was Cassie who had said "Yes", which gave Cassie's mourning family so much relief and love. It's no wonder Val didn't want to say anything. Eventually she did, and investigators were also able to prove that it was Val who said it, since all the witnesses heard the dialogue from where Val was sitting instead of where Cassie's body was found. If I were Val, I wouldn't have said anything. At least not publicly.
The last fifty pages of the book consist of the killers' final goodbyes (audio from the Basement Tapes), a very quick summary of the killers' rampage, and the tenth anniversary of the massacre. This featured a lot of families' and their closure mechanisms. Many parents of victims wrote books or blogs. Cassie's mom wrote a book call She Said Yes despite the fact that it was proevn to her that it was not her daughter who said yes.... Awkward.
I was watching an interview with the dad of the boy whose body was left on the sidewalk overnight without his parents even knowing what happened. At first, this father seemed to be a pretty rational guy. Then he starts to blame himself... Okay that's somewhat natural. But his reason for blaming himself was OBSURD. He said that it was his fault for sending his son to school where evolution was being taught rather than creationism....... WHAT? Then he goes on to say how the theory of evolution is a dangerous thing to teach students and that the massacre wouldn't have happened if Creationism was taught instead.... I had to stop the interview there cause I couldn't take the irrelevancy of evolution on the topic of the massacre at Columbine High School.
I totally recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It shows us so much about psychology, issues in police protocol, issues with lawsuits.... SO many things. And the writing is amazing. Dave Cullen is a genius. However, I don't recommend reading this right before bed. If you don't get freaked out about it in general, then it'll most likely have you up till 3am thinking of what you would do if you were face to face with Eric and Dylan.
Nice blog. To be honest, it kind of makes me not want to read the book. Then again, I didn’t really want to read it anyway. I think you could add a bit more analysis about what the author’s trying to get across. Then again, it seems like a lot of the book is just summary of actual events. You mention that the book is very revealing about psychology and politics, so I’d like to see that expanded upon. What exactly does it say about politics and human psychology. What insights can I learn about these two boys that made them do what they did? But with a bit more expanding on the details and messages, it’d be a totally kickass blog.
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