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2001-03-20 - 12:06 a.m.

Listen

Wow. The D'Land clock is no longer on Greenwich Mean Time and actually reads simply "12:06 a.m." Nice work!

Being away last week, my schedule was different and I didn't have the time � more often than not, didn't make the time � to keep up with the news. I was up unusually early (for a newspaper night desk man) most days, so I watched the "Today" show, which never happens. And I would flip through the St. Petersburg Times left by my door each morning, but never really read it, know what I mean?

So I didn't really follow what was happening with the school shooting in Santee, Calif. Normally, if I were at work, I'd read through the wire stories. I must've read as much about Columbine as anyone on the East Coast. But I wasn't at work last week, so I didn't follow up on the Santana High incident nearly as much.

I caught up with last week's Newsweek, though.

It hasn't even been seven years since I graduated high school, but it is amazing how it has changed. I did get a sense of things heading in this direction my senior year, but it still blows my mind. There was one morning � one morning out of four years � when we arrived at school to see lines out the doors. Metal detectors. All they were searching for were pagers and smaller concealed weapons � knives and such, the likes of which were found in the bushes outside after we all entered the school. No guns, though.

But I did notice a change in the behavior of the students. They were more rude, unruly and disrespectful than any adolescents I'd ever seen. And not just to the teachers, those in authority, but to their peers as well. That's when it started to go downhill, at least as far as I can remember.

There's no respect anymore, that's the problem. No respect for others, peers or elders, no respect for themselves. In reading the Newsweek article, it appears no fewer than a dozen people knew of Andy Williams' intentions before he came to school and shot two boys dead in the bathroom. Remember when smoking was all that went on in the boys' room? Why, even after Columbine, Jonesboro and all the other incidents, did no one think to say something when Andy said he wanted to bring a gun to school?

Is "It can never happen here" still something people really think? I'm 24, not married, not even seeing anyone at the moment, and I'm worried about the day my children reach school age. Kids � and adults � need to speak up when they think someone might be heading down that road. It was never cool to be a tattle-tale, a rat � a "narc" as it's called now.

But it was never cool to visit your friend in the hospital � or the cemetery � before you can drive, either.

The problem lives in education (duh). But not just physically in the buildings. Our schools need money, our children need guidance. Parents blame teachers, movies, media, television for not doing the job that they, the parents, don't even try to do. It starts with the parents; all the rest � the community, the village � is the support network to help the parents. Not replace them.

Our schools, our teachers, need help. I don't have faith in George Bush or his education plans. Gee, maybe standards are down because teachers are too busy reprimanding unruly students and dealing with irrationally demanding parents to devote the time they need to the curriculum, to the students' learning. My mother's a high school teacher, and I hear stories every week of students who don't even care, who don't even try to fake it. What the hell is wrong?

So Bush thinks he has an education plan � along with a tax plan that can't work, hideous environmental policies that threaten the few pristine areas left in America (and forget the air, that's forever ruined). But he won't touch guns � actually, he probably will touch a gun � and how can we get anywhere if that is not addressed. The fact that a dozen kids in three years � and that's a general estimate taken off the top of my head in a split second � can get their hands on a gun and bring it to school has got to be a sign. Something needs to be done. Fuck the Second Amendment. It shouldn't be a right to bear arms; it should be a priviledge, like driving. If you can't earn that priviledge and act in a manner worthy of keeping that priviledge, you lose it. There are no Brits skulking through the woods outside our homes, there is no Revolutionary War going on from Massachusetts to South Carolina.

But some people feel safer with guns in their homes. I wouldn't, I can tell you that.

I could go on, but this is depressing. The weather is warming, baseball season is two weeks away and I just spent a week in the dumbest state � though a warm and fun one � in the Union. I should be in a better mood.

Only a depressed loner who was just looking for some attention across the country had to resort to a shooting spree to make himself heard.

Listen up, people.

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