Like most of the others posting here, I too understood what had driven the Littleton killers to utter despair, because I experienced it myself, a long time ago.
Today I'm a successful, confident, "Rennaisance Guy"... I've got my own consulting company, and am an extremly well paid consultant in a position of extremely high trust writing software for the securities industry. I've worked at IBM, and at an internet startup... I've got a great loft in downtown Manhattan and am the envy of all of my friends here. And that's just work -- I travelled to China and Tibet last year, and visited Mt. Everest. The year before that I went on a 20 day trek in the Nepal Himalaya. I'm always dating beautiful women, and would have settled down a long time ago if I wasn't so damn picky. And yet, I still play computer games constantly, am getting back into Roleplaying Games, and read science fiction... I'm still a geek at heart, at age 33. I just mix in being a geek with a lot of other things, now.
But 15-20 years ago my life was very different. I remember every day, trying to figure out a way home where the jocks who loved to pick on me wouldn't be waiting to beat me up. I remember being lured over to the house of a "friend" so 3 guys could punch me, knock me down, and kick me while I was on the ground. My Dad got angry that time and called the police, because that wasn't a "fair" fight -- but when a single guy, who might be 40 pounds heavier than me (I was a skinny asthmatic then) assaulted me on the way home, that was just "two boys fighting". When I was ostracised by people for being a "skinny wimp", it was, according to my family and teachers, who needed "to learn how to get along better with others".
I remember a solid year when I didn't have a single friend. I think that was the 6th grade. Later, I met a few friends, other highly intelligent people, mostly outcasts. Sometimes someone new would come to school and we would become friends, but then the "mainstream" would make them choose between being my friend and being cool, and they would dump me like a hot potato. This was all before Dungeons and Dragons, before the Internet, before personal computers, before Goth. Back then, the geek hobbies were wargames and science fiction. These were solitary pursuits, for the most part. When D&D came, it basically changed my life. I developed an entire peer group of people interested in the game... I had a "group" of my own... we were still outcasts, but there were enough of us to keep each other from being so damn lonely anymore. One of my geek friends belonged to a high adventure explorer post. I joined, and learned how to rock climb, whitewater canoe, and hike with a pack. Women like to do these things, a lot more than they like killing Orcs. And thus, in my junior year in high school, I got my first date. My life continually got better from there, and it is still improving. At my 10 year high school reunion, guys who had beaten me up in school (and to their credit, were deeply sorry for this) had all gotten fat, and were pathetically trying to flirt with my girlfriend, who was far more beautiful than their wives. But I can remember that fork in the road, when my life turned for the better, and sometimes wonder, if I had not been able to take that route, what would have happened to me. Littleton? I doubt it. But I'd probably be bitter and unhappy somewhere, writing a very different note than this to slashdot.org
We have got to change things. We need an outreach program where people like me, geeks who have made it, can mentor to geeks who are still stuck in the HellMouth and help them. We need to get parents to file criminal Assault charges when geeks are threatened or abused, and we need to get DAs who refuse to prosecute in defense of geeks, or administrators who protect people who abuse geeks, hounded out of office. We need a Geek Lobby. This shouldn't be impossible... we're richer, smarter, and more motivated than they are. John Katz, I think that you should lead this movement. Tell me how I can help, and I will do so.
PS: you can check out my Tibet pictures at http://www.best.com/~kenm .
Slashdot Mirror
Like most of the others posting here, I too understood what had driven the Littleton killers to utter despair, because I experienced it myself, a long time ago.
Today I'm a successful, confident, "Rennaisance Guy"... I've got my own consulting company, and am an extremly well paid consultant in a position of extremely high trust writing software for the securities industry. I've worked at IBM, and at an internet startup... I've got a great loft in downtown Manhattan and am the envy of all of my friends here. And that's just work -- I travelled to China and Tibet last year, and visited Mt. Everest. The year before that I went on a 20 day trek in the Nepal Himalaya. I'm always dating beautiful women, and would have settled down a long time ago if I wasn't so damn picky. And yet, I still play computer games constantly, am getting back into Roleplaying Games, and read science fiction... I'm still a geek at heart, at age 33. I just mix in being a geek with a lot of other things, now.
But 15-20 years ago my life was very different. I remember every day, trying to figure out a way home where the jocks who loved to pick on me wouldn't be waiting to beat me up. I remember being lured over to the house of a "friend" so 3 guys could punch me, knock me down, and kick me while I was on the ground. My Dad got angry that time and called the police, because that wasn't a "fair" fight -- but when a single guy, who might be 40 pounds heavier than me (I was a skinny asthmatic then) assaulted me on the way home, that was just "two boys fighting". When I was ostracised by people for being a "skinny wimp", it was, according to my family and teachers, who needed "to learn how to get along better with others".
I remember a solid year when I didn't have a single friend. I think that was the 6th grade. Later, I met a few friends, other highly intelligent people, mostly outcasts. Sometimes someone new would come to school and we would become friends, but then the "mainstream" would make them choose between being my friend and being cool, and they would dump me like a hot potato.
This was all before Dungeons and Dragons, before the Internet, before personal computers, before Goth. Back then, the geek hobbies were wargames and science fiction. These were solitary pursuits, for the most part. When D&D came, it basically changed my life. I developed an entire peer group of people interested in the game... I had a "group" of my own... we were still outcasts,
but there were enough of us to keep each other from being so damn lonely anymore. One of my geek friends belonged to a high adventure explorer post. I joined, and learned how to rock climb, whitewater canoe, and hike with a pack. Women like to do these things, a lot more than they like killing Orcs. And thus, in my junior year in high school, I got my first date. My life continually got better from there, and it is still improving. At my 10 year high school reunion, guys who had beaten me up in school (and to their credit, were deeply sorry for this) had all gotten fat, and were pathetically trying to flirt with my girlfriend, who was far more beautiful than their wives. But I can remember that fork in the road, when my life turned for the better, and sometimes wonder, if I had not been able to take that route, what would have happened to me. Littleton? I doubt it. But I'd probably be bitter and unhappy somewhere, writing a very different note than this to slashdot.org
We have got to change things. We need an outreach program where people like me, geeks who have made it, can mentor to geeks who are still stuck in the HellMouth and help them. We need to get parents to file criminal Assault charges when geeks are threatened or abused, and we need to get DAs who refuse to prosecute in defense of geeks, or administrators who protect people who abuse geeks, hounded out of office. We need a Geek Lobby. This shouldn't be impossible... we're richer, smarter, and more motivated than they are. John Katz, I think that you should lead this movement. Tell me how I can help, and I will do so.
PS: you can check out my Tibet pictures at http://www.best.com/~kenm .
Ken McKinney
kenm@best.com