I was hearing an NPR podcast on Forgiveness. Sue Klebold’s son Dylan and his friend were responsible for the Columbine massacre. Sue has been living with this tragedy for the last 18 years. In her book A Mother’s Reckoning, she talks about being judged as a bad parent, trying to find why her son did what he did and how has the 1999 incident affected her.
The most controversial element of the memoir, however, is what it asks readers to do with their notions of Dylan. At the time of the shooting, Sue Klebold worked in the same building as a parole office, and often felt alienated and frightened getting in the elevator with ex-convicts. After Columbine, she writes, “I felt that they were just like my son. That they were just people who, for some reason, had made an awful choice and were thrown into a terrible, despairing situation. When I hear about terrorists in the news, I think, ‘That’s somebody’s kid.’”
Needull in a haystack 
I cannot imagine the pain of that mama.
Having lived in that metro area then as well as now, I still recall that April day and the horror of it all. While I have some empathy for Mrs. Klebold and all that she and her former husband may have endured after their son perpetrated one of the most heinous crimes in mass shooting history and have difficulty understanding what suffering they have endured over the years, I recently heard an interview on the local NPR station that made me think she still considers herself a victim. It still seems inconceivable neither parent recognized there was something profoundly wrong with their child although it’s hard to put oneself in their shoes. That whole surreal event is beyond comprehension.
True. Difficult to comprehend
I think we heard the same NPR podcast. Thanks for sharing your personal view on this. I was in school that time in India. But I remember the coverage.
It was horrible. I couldn’t believe the level of depravity of it.