Don't Even TRY...

... to homeschool in Germany!

Here is a link to an article about young Melissa Busekros, stolen from her home because of a Hitler-era law against homeschooling in Germany; she was put into a foster home for three months, and her parents had no idea where she was. Her parents broke the law in Germany by homeschooling her.

I love Germany - it's history, landscape, food and, yes, beer. I lived there for over four years and loved almost every minute of it. I have to say, though, that the government in Germany, much like in the rest of Europe, maintains strict control of a childs education (indoctrination). After all, parents might not teach the all-intrusive liberal mantras of political correctness, multiculturalism, anti-Americanism, radical environmentalism, atheism, and the rest - and we certainly cannot have that happen, now can we?!

Sounds a bit like the NEA.

I'm just thankful to live in the US, where my wife and I can homeschool our kids and keep them away from such garbage!

A Flower

For some reason this makes me feel a bit melancholy. Meghan was with me in the native garden Sunday afternoon. We were walking around, looking at some of the cactus flowers, and she pointed and reached for this Desert Marigold. When I handed it to her, the look on her face was of pure joy. After we went into the house, she continued to carry it around with her everywhere, often placing it up to her nose to sniff. After awhile, she tore it apart, bit by bit, and placed all of the bits together. It was still the same beautiful flower it had been, but was now just pieces, easily scattered, but for now still all together.

I guess that is what makes me sad about it all. The kids are all growing up so fast, and before we realize, they will be teenagers, then going off to college. Families of their own will then follow before we even realize it; our children will have their own children and we will look back and wonder where the time went, what did we miss, what could we have done different...or better. We will still be one family, but very easily scattered...much like the pieces of Meghan's flower.

I know, the kids are still little - Meghan is, after all, only sixteen months old - but it's hard to believe Dylan will be six this year. It just goes by too fast.



Anyway. Meghan's flower, and what it made me think about.

The Columbine Subculture, Part Two

So here is the continuation of the Columbine subculture article. We will first discuss the idea that Klebold and Harris are heroes, then the controversy regarding Cassie Bernall. (See the post below if you missed the first part) These parts will be a bit shorter, so bear with me.

Klebold and Harris as Heroes

These people I have a real difficult time trying to figure out, but there seems to be quite a few of them out there. When I first began to search for videos on some of the internet video sites, I noticed that there were Klebold/Harris tags on some of the videos, rather than Columbine tags. My interest piqued, I decided to watch some of them, and noticed immediately that they were mainly photos of the two shooters set to music. The music in the videos ranged from KMFDM (more on them later) to other metal and industrial bands, and at the end of the videos were usually the words RIP Reb and VoDKa (the shooters names for themselves) or RIP Eric and Dylan, or some other type of pronouncement. The comments for these videos were often worse, with sentiments ranging from adulation to admiration to an almost God-like view of Klebold and Harris. Most of these sentiments seem to follow the misconception that Harris and Klebold were victims of bullying, discrimination and other mistreatment and finally decided to take revenge upon those who had mistreated them - an incorrect reading of the actual event.

I guess what so disturbs me about this group is that they feel that it is appropriate, or even expected, that if one is treated as an outcast, picked on, or bullied, that killing those who mistreated you is okay. There is even a website dedicated to the two, with poetry and other writings dedicated to the two killers who simply had put up with enough. I simply cannot understand these feelings for two murderers.

Once the official investigation was over and the documents released, it became known that not only did the two shooters have a rather wide circle of friends (Klebold attended the Senior Prom with a group of friends a few days before the killings - arriving in a limousine), the group that they were supposed to have been a part of, the Trench Coat Mafia, had a history of its own bullying tactics toward others. From all outside appearances, Klebold and Harris were different, but had numerous friends and acquaintances. Recall, also, that planning for the killings began at least a year prior than their being carried out, rather than as a spontaneous response to being picked on, and one begins to realize that something far more sinister than revenge was being carried out. (To be fair, Harris had complained about being left out of all of the "fun stuff"). Nonetheless, a cult of admiration has developed around Klebold and Harris, and those who idolize the two are quite adamant in their beliefs.

The Cassie Controversy

Now we come to what I believe is one of the most significant, misunderstood, misrepresented, aspects of the killings at Columbine High School - was Cassie Bernall killed for her religious beliefs? Remember, this is the thing that led to my current interest in the event, so it's one I have researched with particular diligence. So was Cassie Bernall killed because she was a Christina? Unequivocally - no. And neither was Rachel Scott, and I will try like hell not to offend anyone with what I write here, as the issue causes a lot of harsh debate and hurt feelings on one side in particular.

Other than Cassie, Rachel, Val and the two killers, I am not going to name names here - not of the investigators, not of the witnesses, none. They have, for the most part, only spoke in the official investigation, and I will not bring them up here. If you so desire to find out who said what (and why) it's all in the official investigation, easily accessible with a google search. That said, on to the shooting and tragic death of Cassie.

It was my reading of the comments for the various Flyleaf "Cassie" videos that made me realize that there is still a huge misconception regarding what happened in the library on April 20th. Most commenters who seem to know a bit about the story write that Cassie was killed because she was a Christian, after responding that way when asked by one of the killers. One of the few survivors of the library killings stated that Cassie made that comment when asked. The only problem is that when he was taken back to the library and asked to identify where he heard the conversation, he pointed to a table where Val Schnurr had been shot - Cassie had died in another location.

Val Schurr had already been shot and was asked by one of the killers if she believed in God. She answered yes. Asked why, she said that she was raised to, and just did. The gunman became distracted and walked off without shooting her again.

Cassie Bernall was under another table. She said "Dear God, Dear God, Why is this happening" when Harris walked over, slammed his fist on the table, shouted "PEEKABOO," and fired blindly under the table, killing her instantly. She was not targeted for her beliefs and was not asked if she believed in God. The witness erroneously reported this, leading to Bernall's mother writing a book about her daughter which was then picked up by Christian evangelicals across the country, who called Cassie a martyr. The truth had become known before the book was published, but it was never withdrawn, hence our current controversy.

Those who side with the myth of Cassie say that either the witness was mistaken, or that it really doesn't matter anyway - it's an important story regardless. Those on the other side say that the family should be open about it (they have) and often claim that Christians use the event and Cassie's martyrdom for other, nefarious, purposes.

Myself, I would like the true story to be better known, but I completely sympathize with a family which lost their daughter. I'm afraid there will be no resolution on this issue, as both sides are adamant in their beliefs. A considerable number of people are part of the Cassie contingent of the Columbine subculture.

Other Stuff

I mentioned in the first part of this that there were a couple of other things that should be cleared up. First, regarding Marilyn Manson, the killers hated him and his music. They were more attracted to KMFDM, Rammstein, and other heavy industrial bands.

The Goth culture. Klebold and Harris were not Goths. Period. End of debate. They simply were not part of that culture - media was grasping at straws in the first few months of coverage.

The Trench Coat Mafia. No, they were not "members." They were possibly very fringe members, and had friends who were TCM members, but they were not.

They planned the assault on the school for at least a year before acting - it was not a spontaneous response to being picked on.

They could have acquired the guns another way if their contacts had failed, gun control will not keep guns (or other weapons - see below) from killers.

They used over 90 homemade explosives.

They DID NOT target athletes and Christians. Again, PERIOD. Read the official report.

These are just a few. These two young men knew exactly what they wanted to do. There is a particularly interesting report on the web about their psychological makeups and why they did what they did - look for it, it's quite revealing. Klebold and Harris murdered, in cold blood, thirteen fellow members of Columbine High School and have found the fame that they so desired - you can see the transcripts of the Basement Tapes for more on this. They wanted to be known, to be famous, to have people talk about them, write about them, make movies about them. "Good wombs hath borne bad sons" indeed.

The Columbine subculture is, as I stated in the first entry, a very disparate group of individuals, but they all have a specific fascination, infatuation, or obsession with Columbine, which allows them all to be loosely classified together.

To any of the families or survivors who happen to stumble across this. My thoughts and prayers are with you as you continue to deal with this tragedy some 8 years later, I certainly cannot begin to imagine how you do it.

The Columbine Subculture

At about 11:19 on April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire on their fellow students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, after the two propane/gasoline bombs they had placed in the cafeteria failed to detonate. Klebold and Harris did not intend to target Christians, Athletes, or anyone else, rather their intent was to bring the upstairs library down on the packed cafeteria, hoping to kill upwards of 500 students in the largest mass murder in US history - they intended to wait outside and shoot those who escaped from the building. What actually happened was, thankfully, quite different.

When they realized their bombs would not work as expected, they opened fire and killed Rachel Scott and Daniel Rohrbough outside before entering the school, where they shot Coach Dave Sanders in the back and neck as he tried to warn students. Sanders died hours later from blood loss in one of the science classrooms while awaiting rescue.

After wandering around shooting and throwing homemade explosives, the two shooters went into the library, where they killed Kyle Velasquez, Steven Curnow, Cassie Bernall, Isaiah Shoels, Matthew Kechter, Lauren Townsend, John Tomlin, Kelly Fleming, David Mauser, and Corey DePooter. They returned to the cafeteria in one last attempt to explode the bombs by shooting and tossing explosives at them, then wandered around a bit, made their way back to the library, and shot at the police outside; a bit after noon, they killed themselves with shots to the head.

That is a very brief summary of the massacre, and a number of excellent sources for information can be found online, so why bring this up in an "anonymous" blog? A few weeks ago I heard a song by the band Flyleaf; the song was "Cassie," which the band dedicates to Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott, shot because "they were Christians." Strange, I thought that issue had finally been resolved

You see, neither Cassie nor Rachel had been killed because they were Christian, they were not singled out. Now don't get me wrong - their deaths were tragic and horrible and we should all continue to pray for their families - but the only student asked if she was a Christian survived Columbine, and more on that will follow, but for awhile now I have been studying quite a bit about Columbine and have seen many of the videos out there relating to it, including the cafeteria surveillance tapes, the Rampart Range and Hitmen for Hire videos, as well as the tribute videos on both sides (yes, there are tributes to the shooters), and I came to realize that there is a well-defined Columbine subculture. To be sure, the subculture is made up of many rather disparate groups but they all share a fascination with some aspect of the tragedy, and can be further classified into three main groups:

Columbine conspiracy theorists

Klebold and Harris as heroes

The "Cassie" factions

In addition there are, of course, books, articles, and websites out there written or run by the survivors or journalists who covered the story, but I do not classify them as part of the subculture because they are more likely to be sources of information only - they "touch" the subculture but are not subsumed by it.

Columbine conspiracy theorists

This is, by far, the most bizarre group in the subculture and it runs the gamut from theories that actually do not sound too outrageous to things that only a true tin-foil hat wearer could believe. To dive into his material is to truly wade through the fever swamps of paranoia, and much of it is hidden within other conspiracy websites which detail such things as the New World Order, Waco and Oklahoma City, MK ULTRA, and even Jewish conspiracies. Let's start with the easiest to digest - the number of actual perpetrators.

During the shooting many students and witnesses claimed to have seen more than Klebold and Harris shooting in the school. Indeed, some students gave specific names of fellow students - and one former student - that they personally knew as being involved. They were absolutely certain it was neither Klebold nor Harris whom they witnessed shooting or throwing explosives. Once school resumed in the fall, several students refused to return on the grounds that some of their fellow students were also involved. During the event, law enforcement was concerned that the shooters would stash their weapons and make their way out of the school with the other students, and the local sheriff held onto his belief for a considerable amount of time after the shooting that there were at least accomplices in bringing the explosives into the school. So what evidence do those who support this view cite? Here are a few things:

The number of witnesses who saw more than two shooters

Shots heard in different parts of the school when it was known that Klebold and Harris were elsewhere

Discrepancies in the stories and alibis of the other 4 students who were cited as being involved

The fact that the lead FBI agents own son was in the Trench Coat Mafia, was a friend of the shooters, and had helped film the Hitmen for Hire video

That's just a bit of the evidence cited by those who hold the view that more than Klebold and Harris were involved. On the other extreme are those who believe that the government set up Columbine to help usher in the New World Order, primarily through the massacre's use as a tool toward gun control.

The fever swamps that I mentioned earlier? Well, you find those here. Those who espouse this view believe that Harris's father, while stationed at Plattsburgh Air Force Base, was part of a group which conducted mind control experiments on children, creating the perfect Manchurian candidate who could be later controlled through CIA-sponsored mind control and the use of drugs (MKULTRA). They believe that federal law enforcement, as well as the CIA, knew of the massacre - indeed planned it - waited for it to occur, then kept local law enforcement out of the picture until such time as enough "damage" had been done. As evidence they cite the fact that it was several hours until local law enforcement was allowed into the school. They also posit that ATF, MI6, CIA, or other personnel were actually in the school doing the shooting and that Klebold and Harris were eventually disposed of by these personnel, while NATO troops and a foreign-uniform wearing two-star general were outside the school controlling the scene.

Well.

In any even of this magnitude, with so many unanswered questions, you will find those whose grasp of Occams Razor is tenuous, as can be seen in the numerous Columbine conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are a way to answer all of those unknowns that we somehow feel we must have to make sense of events like Columbine; even when reduced to the absurd, they give some folks something to grasp. So anyway, these are the extremes. In between you find a multitude of other theories, most quite ridiculous, some attractive to the uninformed, based on everything from Hitlers birthday (April 10) to a Jewish conspiracy. Feel free to do your own research, as it's actually quite fascinating (and a bit scary!) to see how these folks think.

In the next post I'll discuss the other two parts of the subculture - the hero status of Klebold and Harris, and the two sides of the Cassie debate. Then I'll follow it up with some groundbreaking psychoanalysis on the subculture. (Or not!) I'll at least mention some of the other controversies related to the Trench Coat Mafia, Marilyn Manson and a few other things.

Until then, please remember the victims of this tragedy, and say a prayer for their families.

I bought this little Echinocereus a few years ago when it was a single stem. Since then, it has grown quite a bit (it's planted out) and puts on a great flower display every Spring. Unfortunately I still don't have a good id on it, though.

Here's a close-up of the flowers themselves, with a few water droplets to add character!

Liss was nice enought to take these photos of the native area for me, and managed to capture perfectly how the light hits the plants in the evening, with the spines aglow from the setting sun.

Here's one a little closer. Here you can see Mammillaria, Lobivia, Echinocereus, Yucca, Opuntia and various other plants. This is a work in progress and I'll post more photos up as things change.

Hedgehog Flowers

I have 81 of these plants in the desert garden. Are they E. coccineus or triglochidiatus? I'm not sure, and it really is not all that important - I call them all coccineus anyway! Each plant has a slightly different flower - some are more orange, some pink, some have deep red, large open flowers, some are lighter red with smaller closed flowers - really a wide variety. I'll try to post a variety of the flower types here over the next week or so, but here are flowers from the first three plants to bloom.