HAVE you staked out your position as to why the two Columbine high school louts went on an orgiastic killing spree in Littleton, Colorado? The experts certainly have. The steady and dismal {air of endy pap, which has been spewing trom the assorted experts and grief cheerleaders, is sickening. There are the “bullying” theorists, who claim the cruel climate of a high school is enough to push a vulnerable soul over the cage Or how man The mest obscene nations invariably come trom the psychiatrists: the murder- ers had a mental illness: an irregularicy, possibly, in the primitive limbic brain-system. The psychiatrists fail to admit that the correlation berween brain pathology and deviant behaviour is insignifi- cant. They aiso do not con cede that some people simply choose evil. My favourite explanation for why the two hoods careened down hallways, laughing while blowing heads off, is the one claiming there is not enough ion and share-vour- teelings-with-the - group type initiatives around. Quite the contrary. Our. a culture of excess feelings, of exhibitionist dis- plays of feelings. Proof? The kiflers expressed themselves in curriculum- approved ways. They wrote murder- filled poetry for their English ciass, and shot a trig- ger-happy video fora film class. Their odious efforts were not snubbed or rejected by teachers. In all likelihood, the teachers decided the “boys” were just venting their existential angst. michiibaox Measure school successes Dear Editor: The Fraser Institute releas- es data on school perfor- mance, measured by student achievement, and educators take exception citing the selected criteria and incom- plete view of student learn- ing. Timothy Renshaw rightly states (April 4 Ripping Yarns column) chat if the Fraser Institute’s criteria are inade- quate, other measures need to be suggested and used. Tne = West Vancouver Schevl Board directed last year that each school adminis- trator work with parents, teachers, students and the community to develop acceptable “bench marks” for measuring individual school success. I look forward to the com- pletion of this project such that the pubblic’s right to know can be satisfied through community-based account- ability measures. Ken Haycock Trustee West Vancouver School Board liana ercer fair comment The grotesque mourners, who cried on cue for the s, hugged on cuc, and gave interviews on cue even before their children and friends’ bodies had grown cold, yet more proof of ive obscenity. ia held fast to the notion this mayhem was partly because we don't toler- ate di n our school We value jocks, said the Vaaconrer San, more than brainiacs. Poppycock. egislate in deference to dif- ference, and we enshrine spe- dal ights in the name of it. Proot? The killers were allowed to come to school i in War i regalia. . sed their deviancy with no hindrance. No one made them scrub down or shape up Further, did anyone sider that ic was not bullying, such that it was, that rurned these nvo into deviants, bur rather that thet two mass mur- The body system will attack and attempt to flush mutant DNA from its midst, why not larger systems like a y of students? , some say the killers were actually well liked “except when they were ina bad mood.” As for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, they must have known that in death their epitaph would not read: here lie qwo spoilt, indulged, affluent, con- science-free killers, but that it would read: here tie our out- s We created culpatory rhetoric is offensive. But it is what p in-a culture of moral and intellectual relativism. For decades now the cultural cognoscenti —— academics, teachers, lawmakers and lead- ership, in whom we trust to make sense of the events that Shape us == have been telling us the search for trath is dead, In fact the concept of Absolute truth is dead, and debate about right and wrong, ood and bad is no longer part of the cultural didtogue. Part of embracing many world-views, the tone: Setters reasoned, means dis- cussion about right or wrong is Moot. What we debate instead are the usual suspects, some of which have been rounded up iy this space: bullying, teen alienation, lack of sell” worth ete. The debate about absolute right and wrong was fi put to rest when the mention of God was disallowed in the schools. With God out of the way we were really cooking. Of course, our “think d to comprehend that it is possible to encourage a tich debate in society, and stil accept the notions of neht and wrong, good and bad. Nonetheless, the butfoons in schoals, on TV, and in the courts, refuse to speak in terms of moral absolutes. Part and parcel of inhabit- ing this moral no-man’s land means vou have also to sus- pend judgment. Judging is the intellectual component of discerning good from bad. In order to judge you have to differentiate, you have tw weigh things up, and rate some things, some people, and some thoughts above othe The message, however, is to judge is not progres: What defines us human beings: our ability to discern has thus been ban- ished from our conversations. Our schools have thus led children to a point where, as Allan Bloom puts it in The Closing of the American Mind, “There is no enemy other than the man who is not open to everything.” Take away a generation’s ability to tease out ditter- ences, to tell good from bad, and what you have are people whose thinking is blunt and primitive. Sooner or later their moral ” ° Upholstery ¢ Blinds Only the look is expensive! JABOT Creative Window Coverings & Home Decorating Ideas 2413, Marine Dr, West Van 922-4668... The proot comes straight out oft the mouths of babes: “1 wish T could hug them (the killers) and fet them &. ow T loved them,” Qweepy teen). “My friends (the killers) were very good people who made (melodra- mane trend). And how about the grown-ups in letters-to-the- editor demanding with shall zightcousness that the killers also be recognized as victims? T have saved the culture of-violence explaination for last. Ageression and murder are nothing new; they are part of the warp and woof of man’s histor Kids, howe e¢ getting more violent, This is to be expected. Their schools have replaced the language of res son with the language of political correctness and ther- apy. Political correctness and psychobabble are illogical sys- tems, which void a child’s vocabulary of morality and judgment. When children cannot r son, judge and discern they are left with a image to guide them. The Littleton, Colorado, massacre was such a cliché: riddled media event. wad L erred in my April 23 col- umn when [ wrote that the brain drain from (982 to 1992 cost $12.6 billion. I should have written from 1982 to 1996. ~— qnome@attcanada.net Me Shimano. ya 39° Friday. April 30, 1999 — North Shore News — 7 Oil, Lube & Filter up to fs 1362 Marine Drive 980-9715 Mon-Sat 8 00am-6 OGprn, Sun. 9 00am-5 fOpm 1 room, itreas of TOw3O Quake | Wills & Estates Business Soijutions Property Transactions 986-8600 Suite 300, 147 West 16th Street North Vancouver, Fax 986-4872 ireplac ‘ onal In (allation } SERVICE SHOP a * Year i in a Ro NEW HOURS:/ Monday-Friday 9-9 $2 Sat & Sun 9-6 ates j Expres May 12/99