"No Easy Answers" by Brooks Brown

Windshield Incident: I was livid. I slamerred on the brakes and leaned out of the car, yelling, " Fuck you!  Fuck you, Eric! You're gonna pay to fix this!" Eric laughed at me. "Kiss my ass, Brooks! i ain't paying for shit!" 1 floored the gas down the remaining few blocks to my parents house, went in and told my mom exactly what had happened. Then — seeing red — I went straight to Eric's place to talk to his parents. I hammered on their front door, still furious. All I could think of was getting back  at Eric.

Janurary Incident: On January 30, 1998, Eric and Dylan were hanging out together in a parking Out near Deer Creek Canyon Road. They were parked next to a van loaded with various pieces of electrical equipment. At first, Eric and Dylan were just killing time, breaking bottles and lighting a few small fireworks. Yet their attention was drawn to the van. When they realized that no one was around, they decided to force their way into it. While Eric kept watch from inside his car, Dylan smashed in the van's window with a rock and began unloading equipment.  Once they had filled up the back seat of Eric's new Honda Prelude — Eric's parents had given him a car now that he finally had his driver's license — the two Took off and pulled over a few miles away to check out what they had stolen.  Officer Tim Walsh of the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office was on routine patrol in the area. He noticed the two boys and parked his car a short distance away to observe them. After about five minutes, he approached, shone a flashlight into Eric's face, and asked him what they were doing. At first, Eric and Dylan claimed they had found the equipment stacked up on the side of the road. When Walsh made it clear thai he didn't believe that story, they cracked. The boys admitted what they had done, and Walsh took them into custody Their parents were furious. Eric and Dylan received significant grounding as punishment. However, both of their fathers backed them up when they appeared

Greg Barnes: Only a few weeks after the one-year anniversary, Columbine basketball player Greg Barnes committed suicide. Barnes was in the choir room when Eric and Dylan went on their rampage. I never knew Greg, but from what people have told me, the memories of that day were too nuch for him to deal with.

Rachel Scott: There was one person we were looking for more than any other We'd heard a Rumor that Rachel Scott was among those who'd been killed. We'd been at home watching helicopter footage outside the school, and lying near the exterior steps of Columbine was the body of a girl who was wearing clothes just like those I'd seen  Rachel wearing earlier that day. My brother Aaron was on the phone all afternoon, asking people if they knew anything. I was sitting with my friend Steve Partridge on our porch when Aaron ran out to give us an update. " Rachel Scott's dead," he said.  Aaron was just giving us a name. He didn't realize that we both knew Rachel, or that Steve had dated Rachel for a long time. When Steve heard the news, he fell silent. Then he collapsed. We tried to hold out hope. We knew Aaron was getting his information for gossip; no names had been released yet by the police. There was still a chance. That night, we scanned through every crowd. We asked around. "Have you seen Rachel? Do you know ifshe made it out?" No one had an answer. Rachel was special to me fcr one reason: she defied every expectation I'd ever had of a Christian

Daniel Mauser: Debate competition was becoming better for me each year My skills were improving, 1 liked the people I was working with, and by senior year, 1 was ready to make a run at Nationals. Seniors pair up with freshmen in the debate program each year, to mentor them; I mentored a new kid in the program named Daniel Mauser. He was a smart kid, and i liked him immediately, so I told him what I could.


Isaiah Shoels: Some tried to say Eric and Dylan were out to kill minorities, because they called Isaiah Shoels a "n***r" and then killed him It's true Eric posted criticisms ofother races on his Web site from tin's to tin's, and I have no doubt that they did call Isaiah what they did. However, they also killed twelve other people who were white. It seems clear that racist feelings weren't the motivating force behind the shootings.

Advice: Learn from the injustice of Columbine. Look for where parallels are happening elsewhere. I guarantee, you won't have to look fer Then fight to change it. Don't wait for everyone else. Don't let the world happen around you. Don't stay powerless. Don't give up hope.


You can read the book here: https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-pC_WzWbOzxls5ms1/No%20Easy%20Answers%20-%20Brooks%20Brown_djvu.txt

I really enjoyed that book. It was an easy read, it was interesting, and it did come from the perspective of someone who was there and actually knew the people involved.

Awesome book, I recommended it. The part where Brooks talks about the drawing he made for Dylan when he was a kid just kills me everytime " My biggest fear is that Dylan does boast that he isn't my friend"...... Damn.

Add my vote to those who thought "No Easy Answers" was a good read. It's a good perspective from someone who actually knew Eric and Dylan, even if he wasn't as close to them at the time of their deaths as he claimed to be.

Just throwing this out there that a while back I put together a thread with links on discussions of some of the books available on Columbine; in case anyone is looking for anything in particular.
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Did it mention the toxic atmosphere at Columbine like the bullying and the jocks?

bradt93 wrote:

Did it mention the toxic atmosphere at Columbine like the bullying and the jocks?

Yes

For some reason, I loved a part where Brooks described a memory of Himself & Dylan getting into trouble. All because the 2 young lads had jumped into a dirty, icy puddle at the end of winter. Dirty puddle water splashed a girls "new"coat. The girl SCREAMED and the teacher went over the top bonkers at them. Made them scrub the girls jacket with Tooth Brushes until they were clean.

Brooks described how both of them were crying, afraid & upset that the stains wouldn't come out.

I wish I was at home so I could quote the passage from the book.


I guess it shocked me, how Dylan went from being such an innocent child and could turn into something so incredibly monstrous and evil, in such a short period of time. Very scary.

I highly recommend Brooks book.

it reiterates that there was absolutely a brain health issue with Dylan...

I don't think well adjusted completely "there" teenagers plan to commit a massacre.

However, i am not on board with Eric simply being a psychopath, case closed.

I imagine there are similar stories about Eric when he was that age too...

From his book:
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I always think about the bike story with Eric. How when his friend fell and hurt himself Eric rode all the way back alone to get him help

Adzybear wrote:

For some reason, I loved a part where Brooks described a memory of Himself & Dylan getting into trouble. All because the 2 young lads had jumped into a dirty, icy puddle at the end of winter. Dirty puddle water splashed a girls "new"coat. The girl SCREAMED and the teacher went over the top bonkers at them. Made them scrub the girls jacket with Tooth Brushes until they were clean.

Brooks described how both of them were crying, afraid & upset that the stains wouldn't come out.

I wish I was at home so I could quote the passage from the book.


I guess it shocked me, how Dylan went from being such an innocent child and could turn into something so incredibly monstrous and evil, in such a short period of time. Very scary.

I highly recommend Brooks book.

Okay that's a little bit extreme. Were all the teachers at Columbine assh**les. I mean they wouldn't come to their defense when they got bullied, but they get upset over them accidentally spilling dirty water on a girls coat? Those people must of not had their priorities straight. Randy Brown and yes he has a YT account have been talking and he said the bullying at Columbine was horrendous and the teachers didn't do sh**t.

bradt93 wrote:

For some reason, I loved a part where Brooks described a memory of Himself & Dylan getting into trouble. All because the 2 young lads had jumped into a dirty, icy puddle at the end of winter. Dirty puddle water splashed a girls "new"coat. The girl SCREAMED and the teacher went over the top bonkers at them. Made them scrub the girls jacket with Tooth Brushes until they were clean.

Brooks described how both of them were crying, afraid & upset that the stains wouldn't come out.

I wish I was at home so I could quote the passage from the book.


I guess it shocked me, how Dylan went from being such an innocent child and could turn into something so incredibly monstrous and evil, in such a short period of time. Very scary.

I highly recommend Brooks book.
Okay that's a little bit extreme. Were all the teachers at Columbine assh**les. I mean they wouldn't come to their defense when they got bullied, but they get upset over them accidentally spilling dirty water on a girls coat? Those people must of not had their priorities straight. Randy Brown and yes he has a YT account have been talking and he said the bullying at Columbine was horrendous and the teachers didn't do sh**t.

It was elementary school.

Also, I’ve never heard the story about Eric on his bike.

I loved this book. I read it in two days

I loved that book. I haven’t read it in a very, very long time...but it, at least to me, was nice to have somebody give a point of view that was more “there” than people think. Some of his insights were interesting, to say the least.
I myself am still on the fence about Brooks as a person...you know, for obvious reasons, some of which I’ve seen discussed to death on here...but, as far as some of the contents of the book, it was stuff I had never heard or read, and it was stuff that really made me think.
So it was an enjoyable book for what it was.

It was a decent book, but it has its flaws, and Brooks has been known to...embellish the truth.

Dylan NEVER gave Brooks the address to Eric's website. That is a flat out lie.

This is an unusually nice thread about Brooks. Most people here hate him and think he's a liar, and he's a suspected perv too, but I'm not sure what to make about that.

I myself never enter a Brooks thread without bringing up the likely howler he tells in NEA (mostly a good book, mind you) about confronting DeAngelis at graduation to tell him off. Yeah, right!

I really learned a lot from that book, even though I digress really badly when it comes to 'revenge for bullying' and 'the lowest of the low'. I feel like Brown has the same narrative that pretty much everyone does in regards to school shootings.

Adzybear wrote:

For some reason, I loved a part where Brooks described a memory of Himself & Dylan getting into trouble. All because the 2 young lads had jumped into a dirty, icy puddle at the end of winter. Dirty puddle water splashed a girls "new"coat. The girl SCREAMED and the teacher went over the top bonkers at them. Made them scrub the girls jacket with Tooth Brushes until they were clean.

Brooks described how both of them were crying, afraid & upset that the stains wouldn't come out.

I wish I was at home so I could quote the passage from the book.


I guess it shocked me, how Dylan went from being such an innocent child and could turn into something so incredibly monstrous and evil, in such a short period of time. Very scary.

I highly recommend Brooks book.

I dont think Dylan was inherently evil. I doubt that most of these school shooters are. I believe that, much like experts have argued, something evolved over time.