Do you feel any sorrow for Eric and Dylan?

joeyjoejoe wrote:

They knew what they were doing, I think that's clear based on their actions and writings. And it's not like they were just vandalizing property or something. 17/18 years old or not, they knew what they were doing was wrong, and they didn't care. They weren't stupid. I don't want to let them off the hook just because they were troubled or young. It wasn't even like they were too imbalanced to know better; they planned it for at least a year. (...) I feel much more sympathy for their parents (and the parents of those killed or wounded) than I do for Eric and Dylan, who got what they wanted and didn't hang around to deal with the consequences.

I think this needs to be stressed and I strongly second this post. E&D knew what tehy were doing, I sure as hell knew what death and murder are when I was 17 and my knowledge did not radically evolve in these departments since.

Eric and Dylan wanted to kill and die taht day, they got just what they wanted (evn if we think it was a bad choice).
Now Rachel, Kyle, Lauren, Mr.Sanders and all the other victims? They didn't want to die, they had other often very exciting plans for the future they all looked forward to. They didn't get to die the way that they wanted to die, unlike E&D. They didn't get to live out their lives according to their own fee will.

That's why imho thy deserve much more compassion than E&D.

I can't agree with your teacher.
There are a lot of people the majority of society would like to see gone if it had their way. It's just not legal to kill most of them. For me, that doesn't mean their lives don't have value or they shouldn't be here.
I think that most people would dismiss most Columbiners, or people who marry prisoners or anyone that is friendly towards "bad" people as leaving the world a better place if they were gone. I know people have wished death on us often enough.

Falcolus wrote:

Its probably better that they have gone rather than living and waiting around for a trial and witnesses in court and all that kind of ordeal. My history teacher once said that sometimes for the greater good of society some people just have to go.

I was going to make this long and wordy post, but reading everyone else's thoughts makes me reconsider everything. So I will just say: I don't condone what they did, I think it's awful. I can't imagine what it must be like for the survivors, for the families of the deceased, for E&D's own families. Yes, they knew exactly what they were doing. But I find it hard to not feel any sympathy for someone in a mindset that they thought this was the right thing to do.

I have empathy for Eric and Dylan. I feel I have a fair understanding of how they felt, why they did what they did and the frailty of all humanity which can lead anyone down this path, but I will not excuse them for their ultimate actions and the greatest sorrow I have is for the innocent lives they took. The lives of their victims I feel the most sorrow for.