Lessons Not Learned

ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/20/columbine-lessons-not-learned/

I just watched the movie he made, and his point extends even further than you’d think.

When I was a senior in high school, one of the students in the Junior class died. When I heard his name I didn’t know who he was, it wasn’t until I saw his picture that I recognized Mark Rung. That was in a school of maybe 350 students, who prided themselves on the idea that "everyone knows everyone." It was the most difficult pill to swallow recognizing that wasn’t true. I felt awful that he was gone, but I felt worse recognizing that I didn’t know him. Later that same year, just after I graduated, the Junior class lost another student, someone I knew far better. I think Sean Scott was someone everyone knew, but I could be wrong. All of the great things I remember about Sean, how good a person and a friend he was, and how much things would not be the same without him, who would say they aren’t also true about Mark? I just didn’t know him well enough to know.

To those who read this that knew both of them, I’m sorry for digging up old wounds. We remember both Mark and Sean, and we won’t forget either of them. Mark taught me something even though I didn’t know him, and so did Sean. I hope they would think of me as an old friend who remembers both of them.