Columbine revisited
And how to find cheap seats
It’s that time already: Signs in front of Crawford Elementary School remind parents to start planning for that first day of school. Registration began March 1. To enter kindergarten, children must be 5 years old by October 1. By the way: “Kindergarten” is the German word for “garden of children”.
The beginning of the deluge
I remembered the day; I did not remember the date. I was in the office, working, making phone calls, writing stories. Someone ended a call and said something about a shooting. Then one of my colleagues, Pat was his name, said something like, “My kids go to that school!” and dashed out the door. (His kids were okay.)
I was fairly new to Colorado, and had no kids in school, so I had never heard of Columbine High School in Littleton. More to the point, America had yet to experience the day when mass shootings, and school shootings, wouid be commonplace.
The date, the beginning of the deluge, was April 20, 1999. The internet and the non-stop news cycle did not yet exist. But on my next business trip, in a distant city, people stopped me in hallways and elevators to express sympathy. (This would happen again after Aurorans died in a theater shooting July 20, 2012.) I might not have recalled the anniversary of either if I hadn’t seen a news release from Senator Michael Bennet, noting that 12 students and one teacher were killed that day, and 24 others were injured. He said,
Twenty-seven years ago, young lives were taken at Columbine High School and Colorado was forever changed. Since then, entire generations have grown up with the fear that a mass shooting could touch their own lives. That cannot be our normal. Today is a time to honor those we lost, stand with those whose lives were forever changed, and renew our commitment to preventing such senseless violence across America.
Whether it touches us personally, or splashes our consciousness with headlines and shouting, violence hurts us all at some level, I believe. Guns and bombs enable abuse and murder but it’s the hate that eats at our soul. Remembering tragedy could be a way of healing, or could resurrect the anger. But I think the annual rememberance is the least we owe to victims.
Another Boston massacre
In this mood, I was thinking about the day of Columbine, when I recalled a closer brush with a violent event. On April 15, 2013, two brothers placed homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The resulting horrible explosions killed three people and injured hundreds more.
As it happened, I arrived in Boston the following day for a business meeting at a downtown hotel not far from the bombing. Boston was a familiar place; I had once lived and worked there. Later, I learned I’d been on the last plane to arrive before Logan Airport was shut down, and rode in one of the last taxis to reach the hotel before police closed area roads and basically locked down the city for several days.
The conference went on as the hotel began running out of food. But the bar didn’t run out of wine, which I recall because a small crowd was there when the TV news reporter said the last suspect had been found. We all stood and cheered. We could go outside at last. My boss and I went out into cold rain, but who cared? We walked around the dark civic center and returned soaked and freezing.
No relief
I suppose I should mention the latest gun-related news, because the story broke as I was writing this. On April 25, the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner was halted by gunshots in the hall of the Washington Hilton, where President Trump was expected to speak.
The irony, which I haven’t seen mentioned, is that reporters are not supposed to let themselves be part of the story. Here were a roomfull of famous journalists and their very famous sources, and they were all part of the story. The Guardian correspondent, David Smith, saw it as part of a long and dangerous decline:
The past 10 years have witnessed a shooting at a congressional baseball practice, a deadly white supremacist march in Charlottesville, the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol and the killings of the former Minnesota house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk. Political violence is rampant and on Saturday, in a fancy Washington ballroom, Trump and the media glimpsed the edge of the abyss.
Local theaters bring performing arts home
When I read an announcement that the Aurora Symphony Orchestra will perform at Gateway High School in May, I thought, “Wait—Aurora has a symphony orchestra? And it’s coming to Gateway High School?” A little research revealed that there is a lot I didn’t know about the local art scene, including the fact that it is possible to enjoy it at discounted prices. Along with school auditoriums, Aurora has three theaters and a wealth of local talent.
Behind the announcement, and the discounted prices, is Laura Embleton. Without much publicity, she has been organizing group excursions to performances around the state: theater, ballet, opera, music, even some baseball games. For example, a local play might cost $25 to $50, but she can arrange a group discount of 10% to 20%. After 20 years, she knows the statewide entertainment scene well. “It’s kind of a full-time job,” she says.
Laura grew up in Littleton, and now lives in Aurora. She frequently attends plays at the city’s three main theaters, the Aurora Fox, the Aurora Vintage, and the People’s Building, all on Colfax Avenue. For her latest venture, she has begun a service to arrange private reservations for performances along with dinner and hotel lodging—anywhere in Colorado. Called Colorado Arts Concierge, she describes it as an “elevated performing arts experience.” In addition to finding discounted tickets, she often is able to set up meetings with performers, she says.
As for the Aurora Symphony Orchestra event, here are the details:
Program: Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and songs celebrating graduation
Saturday, May 16, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 17, 4 p.m.
Gateway High School, 1300 S Sable Blvd, Aurora, CO 80012
Tickets: $20 adults, children and students free, seniors and military $10
The concert is an annual event to benefit the orchestra’s Arts for a Better Tomorrow program. For this and to learn about other events, contact Laura at lembleton@comcast.net.
Word Salad: The result of my experiment with abstract painting.