Return from Columbine...

This was forwarded to me by a friend. Granted not all views expressed are accept or shared by all; but, the message is sound… in my opinion!

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Forwarded Message

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Columbine Student's father 12 years later
Guess our national leaders didn't expect this, hmm? On Thursday, Darrell Scott,
the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in
Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee's
subcommittee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session
of Congress was painfully truthful.


They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well. It
needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every
sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous
words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal.
There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness...

The following is a portion of the transcript:

"Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men
and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The
death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic
teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood
cries out for answers.


"The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in
the field. The villain was not the club he used.. Neither was it the NCA, the
National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the
murder could only be found in Cain's heart.


"In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly
fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the
NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or
defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my
daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I
believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest
opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy -- it was a
spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies!
Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the
pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. I wrote a poem just four nights ago
that expresses my feelings best.


Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You've stripped away our heritage,
You've outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question "Why?"
You regulate restrictive laws,
Through legislative creed..
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need!

"Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and spirit.
When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that
allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreak havoc. Spiritual
presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation's
history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a
historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor
God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when
something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs -- politicians immediately
look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more
restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private
liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have
been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who
spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our
own hearts.


"As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two
friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I
defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young
person in America, and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at
Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the
many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new
millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given
right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at
the NRA -- I give to you a sincere challenge...Dare to examine your own heart
before casting the first stone!

My daughter's death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will
not allow that to happen again.

Darrell Scott
Do what the media did not --- let the nation hear this man's speech. Please send
this out to everyone you can.

God Bless

May the Force be with you, always.

I think, that because all prayer for all religions can't be allowed, (or realistic?)

That they figured better none, than to appear to favor some, rather than others...

I dont think it was to exclude God, but to not show favoritism...

The message I initially took from this is that the Father did not hold responsible any other one person but the one that did the shooting. And that instead of placing the whole blame entirely on the individual he recognized that in deviating from a path which keeps us in accordance with harmony we can be lead astray and tempted to do terrible things.

Granted, what he believes as the right path to peace is not the same as mine (or many others here). But I do feel that he has learned to identify the source of his pain and not be lead so much by emotional grief.

Now, unresolved grief (I believe) is guiding him to assert his beliefs on his community and make recommendations that will ostracize others. But I feel that this is because he doesn't know any better. And until we learn, how can we know.

To a degree, I admire his courage... albeit misguided in my opinion. And I feel that he shows the desire to forgive. But I haven't decided rather he is actually forgiving and trying to prevent another event of this nature; or, searching for new avenues to pass the blame to and diverting his hostilities to them.

I dont think secular societies have paid enough attention to teaching morals in the public education systems. Previously religion in schools taught a moral framework and since that is being removed perhaps many people feel like nothing is replacing it to teach morality to young people.... hence this persons viewpoint perhaps.

I was reading a bit of a Hare Krsna book yesterday and it talked about how this particular guru seemed to believe that the world needed a type of priest class to provide moral leadership to the public. He was saying that whilst people are animals we are all so busy or being oppressed in various ways, that we tend to generally be unable to properly live an enlightened life and instead fall into more animalistic patterns of thought and behaviour (fall to the darkside!?). He seemed to write that this priest class would better determine what is right and wrong based on their pursuit of higher spirituality as professional spiritualists to serve as societies brain on these issues. Naturally this reminded me of the Jedi's role in the Star Wars movie where by virtue of there fictional genetic higher spirituality they were more enlightened and therefore better able to make determinations and settle conflict as authorities on what is more moral in diplomacy and leading military interventions.

Source; The Quest for Enlightenment, HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada