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October
Twelve Years After Columbine
Sunday, April 19, 2011 marked
the twelth anniversary of the school shootings at
Columbine High School in Colorado. Shortly after
the shootings, I wrote an essay about the incident
which is attached with this update
perspective.
What have we learned as a
result of the innocent loss of thirteen lives and
numerous serious injuries in Colorado ten years
ago? Well, we’ve tightened school security
nationwide and made it more difficult to get guns
into schools.
But what have we really
learned about why young men go off the deep end
with terrifying violence. My sense is that as a
nation we still have not addressed in any
meaningful and sustained way what is happening
today. See Young Men document attached.
Rather than decreasing,
homicide and suicide among young men are on the
rise. It is rising for white, Native American,
Hispanic and African American males. But I
don’t see or hear about the national education
and psychological associations addressing this
issue in any kind of focused and sustained
way.
The facts themselves are
alarming. Suicide is the third leading cause of
death for males ages 16-24. Males are four times
more likely than females to take their own lives.
Today in the United States, we have twice as many
deaths from suicide than from HIV/AIDS.
A sign that all is not
well with young men is this shocking fact—in
the last decade there has been a dramatic rise in
suicides by males aged 10-14. The male nature of
both suicide and homicide is evident in the
following statistics.
Native American males aged
15-24 account for 64% of all suicides by Native
Americans. Of all homicide victims in the United
States, 86% are males. In Pennsylvania in a recent
year, with a total of 490 African American
homicides, 441 were African American
males.
The conclusion from the
data is clear. Young men are killing themselves
with increasing frequency and the problem has now
spiked sharply with the 10-14 year old males.
The other conclusion is
that young men are killing other young men with
increasing frequency.
Where do we go from here?
We have the Violence Policy Center which keeps good
statistics on suicide and homicide. But its main
focus is gun control and more regulation of guns.
But I believe we as a
nation must face up to the truth that the breakdown
among young men cannot be explained away by the
availability of guns in the culture.
Why are young men killing
themselves and killing each other with increasing
frequency. And why is suicide steadily rising in
the pre-teen male?
It can’t be explained
away by social class arguments. The Columbine
shooters were upper middle class suburban youth.
And many of the recent mass shootings by men
against the innocents were done not by poor men but
by middle class men with education and conventional
life styles.
Perhaps the answer is to
be found in the paralysis of feeling among young
males. The inability to open their hearts to the
pain of life in their own family and their
community. Men are taught not to feel. Men
don’t cry. Suck it up! Act like a
man!
Models of vibrant and
healthy masculine behavior seem to be in short
supply in American culture. Urbanization and the
disconnectedness of life in suburban America create
a sense of emptiness and aloneness. Loneliness.
“What do I have to live for” seems to be
the question more and more boys and young men are
asking themselves these days.
My experience is that
young males feel disconnected and alienated from
older males. Rather than seeing mid-life and older
men as “wisdom keepers” and mentors,
young men tend to view older males with suspicion,
indifference or scorn. Our dilemma as a society is
that boys and young men can’t fix their own
problem – nor is it realistic to expect them
to “pull themselves up by the
bootstraps.”
Perhaps it is time for
Rotary International to make this their number one
national priority. Maybe the bishops and clergy of
the Catholic and Protestant church in America need
to step up and make this their priority.
I would personally like to
see the American Psychiatric Association, the
American Psychological Association, the National
Education Association or the National
Association of Social
Workers make this their priority.
Why not have the Obama
administration create a czar for the “survival
of the young American male.”
We have an excellent
national mentorship program called
“America’s Promise” -- headed by
former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Maybe
saving the young American male could be their
priority? Will anyone step up? When Betty Freidan
wrote the ground-breaking book The Feminine
Mystique which ignited the women’s movement in
the United States in the 1960’s, she described
the plight of middle class women as “the
problem that has no name.”
Today, we again have
“a problem that has no name.” It is all
about boys and young men and our failure as adults
to give them what they need.
©2010, Forrest
Craver
* * *
Man becomes great exactly in the degree to which
he works for the welfare
of his fellow man. - Mahatma Gandhi
Forrest
Craver has been doing men’s work for more than
20 years. He was senior interviewer for Wingspan:
Journal of the Male Spirit for many years. He has
led or co-led more than 40 retreats or workshops
for men including The Mankind Project, Men in
Recovery, and regional clergy retreats for United
Methodist and ELCA denominations. He is a lawyer
and a nationally recognized fundraising consultant
for nonprofit groups. He is the author of a short
book of Spiritual Poetry entitled “This Well
Has No Bottom” and is finishing a book about
intergenerational breakthrough approaches for boys
and men in American culture. His websites are
cravercreativeservices.com/and
transitioncolorado.ning.com/profile/forrestcraver
or eMail.He
lives and works in the Denver metro
area.
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