It's April 20th. To some people it's almost a holiday. To me, it's a memorial day.
I'm speaking of course of the anniversary of the Columbine tragedy.
At the time it happened, we lived in Iowa and while I thought it was tragic, I didn't really understand the impact this had on people's lived until a year later when we were living in Littleton.
The church we belonged to wasn't very far from the high school. Some of the kids in our youth group went there. One of the boys passed the shooters in the parking lot as they were getting their guns out of the car. His father was still visibly shaken every time someone brought it up. Later, I would go to work for the guy. On the anniversary, he had to take the day off. He wasn't a weak man, by any means, he just needed to remember the day in his own way. I had a CD with a memorial song on it, I wasn't allowed to play it in the office.
Later, we had to move. A generous church member helped us with a house - which happened to be across the street from Columbine high school. We lived there for almost two years. There was a little strip mall on the other side of the street with a grocery store that we frequented. Over the course of two years we had the chance to be around the people that were most directly affected by the event. The most noticeable thing would be if there was ever a loud noise, like a car backfire, people seemed to instinctively duck and cover - rather than look up like those of us who have never been exposed to violence.
I'm just kind of rambling here. I'm not sure I had much of a point to share. Some of these thoughts are much better expressed by a friend of mine who was much close to the event and the people. You can read her thoughts here: http://annettebudd.wordpress.com/ .
There's still so much pain. I hope and pray people can someday fine peace.
