Eric and Dylan destroyed 15 lives and damaged countless others

So … f**k ‘em. (?)

Too harsh?

Discuss.

No, LPorter, not too harsh.

Imagine if you were one of the victims' family members.

A cliched thing to say? Yes, but no more than "Eric and Dylan were people too!!"

I mean, do we only say "they were people too" because they're dead? Howzabout someone who did something terrible and is very much alive like Alexis Flores?

Expressing my opinion would get me a knock on the door, my nigga!

As I get older I find myself looking back on my life and I can’t quite decide what to make of it all. I remember the good times and the bad times - the joy and the misery and the agony and the ecstasy and the hope and the fear and the thrill of victory and the bitterness of defeat and the anguish and the exultation and the bright shining moments in the sun and the dark dreary sleepless nights - and I think to myself that so much of that stuff happened after I graduated high school.

On the verge of middle age I find it harder and harder to make excuses for Eric and Dylan. I find it harder to forgive them for what they did.

But at the same time I find it harder to be angry at them. I just feel very sad.

NBK represents a massive squandering of human potential. So much promise just got flushed down the toilet.

And for what? What was the point? “Screw you, we hate our lives, here’s a bullet for your head.”

I understand rage. I understand anger. I understand hatred. I get it. But this whole thing was just a total fucking waste.

I wanted to find the goodness in them. I fought for Eric, especially - I argued in favor of his humanity. I tried to make the world understand his secret pain. I didn’t want to write him off as just another crazy psychopath.

But Eric wrote himself off. He betrayed his parents and his brother and his friends and his classmates. He betrayed everyone. And ultimately he betrayed himself.

So that is why I feel more and more inclined to leave Eric and Dylan drowning in their own blood in that ruined library. Let the vultures like Cullen feast on their putrefying corpses. They made their choice.

I’ll never give up on them completely. But they really, really, really fucked up. In the end they just totally pissed it all away.

There are so many people who struggle to survive in the face of unspeakable adversity. There are people who endure tremendous pain and hardship just to draw a single breath. Those are the people who deserve our sympathy, compassion, and understanding.

Eric and Dylan … not so much.

They get my sympathy, compassion, and understanding, because even now I still feel for them. I still mourn them.

But they really don’t deserve it.

That is harsh, but it is honest. And as I get older I find that honesty is the highest virtue of all.

LPorter101 wrote:

On the verge of middle age I find it harder and harder to make excuses for Eric and Dylan. I find it harder to forgive them for what they did.

What do you think about victims' relatives/survivors (for example, Craig Scott) who claim they forgave the perpetrators?

Wanderer wrote:

LPorter101 wrote:

On the verge of middle age I find it harder and harder to make excuses for Eric and Dylan. I find it harder to forgive them for what they did.

What do you think about victims' relatives/survivors (for example, Craig Scott) who claim they forgave the perpetrators?

Forgiveness is good for the soul. It's hard to go through life carrying around a bunch of toxic anger, bitterness, and resentment. At some point you have to accept that certain things cannot be changed, that certain actions cannot be undone, and that harboring a bunch of negativity does nothing but drain your energy.

But it's not always easy.