Best of Miami Portfolios 2001 - Units.muohio.edu

transformed by external improvements. It is foolish to presume that such external measures will
result in such internal transformations.
We have been attempting to minimize the enormity of the crisis into a package we can
analyze and handle, into something manageable. It is too painful and terrifying to admit that the
problem is too large for us. The tragedies of Paducah, Columbine, and Oklahoma began in the
minds and hearts of students, and we are ill fit to fully understand and comprehend the intricacies
of their experiences and psychological makeup. “People are looking for someone to come and say,
‘This is why it happened,’“ said Frank DeAngelis, principal of Columbine High School. “...I think
the reason people feel so afraid is the threat that it can happen again. That’s why people are so
frustrated. I’m frustrated. There is not a day that goes by when I don’t think, ‘Why did they do
it?’” (Miller 75). We cannot dictate or predict the thoughts of those around us. Emily Dickinson
once wrote, “The Brain—is wider than the sky—”.
We cannot implement a reform that will change human nature. There is no dress code that
will bring self-esteem to the outcast or humble the popular. There is no metal detector that can
sufficiently alert a student population to an angry and violent peer. The problem this nation faces
is that of hurting hearts and minds. To present a concrete solution one must have a concrete
problem, but this problem is complicated and its factors at times inexplicable. Its enormity resides
in human emotion, its source as large as the capacity of the human mind. It is, therefore, as
Dickinson aptly put: “wider than the sky.”
Works Cited
Mathis, Deborah. “Schools Fail at Stopping Violence.” The Cincinnati Enquirer 7 December 1999,
Final ed./Warren: A3.
Miller, Mark. “The Haunting Memories.” Newsweek 13 December 1999, Final ed./Warren: 75.
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