Humanity, as Seen Through the Lens of Inhumanity

I am blown away by the honesty of Susan Klebold's "I Will Never Know Why." How easy would it have been to write an article solely to defend yourself from the accusations of many, to say "Look, I was good to him, I didn't know this was going to happen, I did a good job raising him!" While Klebold did say this in portions of her essay, it wasn't the focus. While I can't speak for her, I don't doubt there was a great temptation to write a defense, a justification on her and her husband's end for what happened.


Instead, she wrote an honest account of her experience. She gave a play-by-play of the actual day it happened. She shared what she felt. In a bold move, she doesn't ask for pity or even forgiveness. It's raw. It's open. And again, it's honest.


When I looked up the article, I saw seven pages and was a bit bummed. It wasn't the length, really, that set me back, but that it was all online. It is tiring to read too much on a computer screen. Yet this reading zipped by, and I found myself wanting more. More? Why more?


"I Will Never Know Why" is sad. It's real. It's not at all graphic, but many of us I'm sure can recall images and newscasts, unearthing those shocked and unbelievable feelings from when it happened. What would make me want to read more of something like this?


For starters, I believe that these experiences should be shared. Even if Klebold didn't include statistics and hotlines for things like suicide and depression, we can learn from this account. Different people will read into different things, but such an experience, if presented well–and it was–is a valuable insight into life and, of course, death. But what else? It would be a bit off to say that this piece's value lies in the lessons we learn. That line of thinking comes from too much incorrect schooling and instruction. No, what makes this piece great to me is that it touches its readers. It speaks to the humanity in each one of us, the one that can identify with tragedy, with loss, and with the fact that even if we don't know each other, we are all of one species, and we share this planet.


-Alexander Hirata