23.) In 'At The Broken Places' Patrick Ireland says "The shootings were an event that occurred. But it did not define me as a person. It did not set the tone for the rest of my life." How do the vignettes about the school, the memorial and the survivors confirm or dispute this statement?
Patrick Ireland “broke,” so to speak, but he went on to be strong at his broken places, both physically and emotionally. Physically, he overcome his handicaps: walking, talking, dancing, achieving scholastically, finally waterskiing again. Emotionally, he did not allow for any bitterness about the things he’d lost, like an architectural career, and he found a new girlfriend and got married.
The school was broken by the shootings, but eventually was rebuilt physically. A new generation of high school students arrived who had been in grade school when it happened. They remember the tragedy, but it is not setting the tone for their years in high school; they no longer use the word Columbine as the name of a massacre.
We can’t tell much about the Harrises and the Klebolds, who were definitely broken by the death of their sons and by the community’s finger-pointing at them. But it seems that, since they remain in seclusion, they are letting the shootings set the tone for much of the rest of their lives.
Mr. D went through a divorce largely influenced by PTSD stemming from the shootings, so he was badly broken. He seems better, and he is now engaged to an old girlfriend, so he is recovering at his broken places. However, he will probably always be defined by the shootings, in the public’s eye, for as long as remains on the job as principal of Columbine High.
Linda Sanders really let the shootings, and the loss of her husband, define her as a person for years. Fortunately, she has pulled out of her depression, so perhaps her broken places have begun to heal as well.
Brad and Misty Bernall, although happy in New Mexico, still are still known as the parents of the so-called martyr Cassie, as described in the book ‘She Said Yes.’ Even though they are proud of Cassie and may not want to move on, they continue to seem defined by that event.
Brian Rohrbough, to me, is the saddest example in the book of a man who has let the Columbine shooting and the loss of his son set the tone (a very bitter tone) for the rest of his life. I’m glad that he has remarried and adopted children; perhaps eventually, this will help to take away some of his bitterness. But his political involvement, and his angry inscription in the Columbine memorial, indicate that he has been turned into a man who is seeking out rebellious causes as a result of the shooting.
