24 — Wednesday, May 5, 1999 — North Shore News

THE two boys responsi-
ble for the Littleton,
Colorado school mas-
sacre were tired of being
called losers by those
who viewed themselves
as winners.

Tt was a worse-case scenario
of the strong driving the weak
hard enough and relentlessly

enough that at last, with their
back tn the comer, they found

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no alternative but to strike
back.

How many alienated kids,
with Internet access to danger:
ous information about explo-
sives, were actually cheering
these events? As frightening as
it might be for us to think of

this, there were probably many

such vouths, and Litdeton will
not likely be the last time we
see such rage. And, oh ves, in
case We were getting a little
smug, it’s not an American
thing.

There have been shootings
in Canadian high schools since
1975. The Americans just do
it bigger.

There are many factors
which may lead to young peo-
ple going aver the edge. A
combination of family dynam-
ics, peer alienation, personal
mental illness, and “excessive

north shere news

AEPARENTAL GUIDANCE
petition labels ‘winners’ and ‘losers’

impulsivity may al] act to bring
desperation to a particular
individuel who can no longer
cope with the stress. But there
are also larger factors working
in our society that are pushing
more young people to the
edges of their stress tolerance.

One of them is the culture
of winners and losers we have

created with our extraordinary

emphasis on sports.
Although F was a competi
tive athlete for many years,
and believe that many values
are Jearned from participation

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in such activities, | wonder if it
has all gone a little too far. In
my childhood, I plaved very
few competitive sports but
spent a lot of time at play. My
trends and T would go to the
local park every waking hour
that we were not in school and

we played all manners of
sports,

There were no referees, no
coaches, no screaming crowds
— just a bunch of kids play-
ing. [ remember having a lor

See Losing page 26

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