Memorial cast in hope

Clinton helps break sacred ground for memorial to Columbine victims

Kevin Vaughan And Charley Able, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 17, 2006 at midnight

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Former President Clinton came back to Columbine on Friday to break ground on a permanent memorial to the victims of the country's deadliest school shooting on an afternoon marked by somber skies and the wail of bagpipes.

And while Clinton's main mission was to encourage others to give to the memorial fund, he also took out his own checkbook, pledging $50,000 toward the memorial, which will be built into a hillside not far from the school where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed a dozen students and a teacher and wounded more than 20 others April 20, 1999.

"I am here today because millions of Americans were changed by Columbine," Clinton told an estimated 2,000 people who gathered in Clement Park. "It was one of the darkest days Hillary and I had in the White House.

"We wept, and we prayed."

For the families who lost so much, Friday was a day of careening emotions.

There was the satisfaction of knowing that the memorial, long planned, was finally going to be a reality.

And there was the image of a police car parked at the top of Rebel Hill.

"It was a wave of emotions, up and down," said Ann Kechter, who lost her son, Matt, in the Columbine library.

Rick Townsend, who lost his daughter, Lauren, summed it up in one word: "bittersweet."

"We've all come so far that we can laugh in the middle of it, but at the same time, when you hear Amazing Grace on the bagpipes, that brought back the pain so quickly," Townsend said.

And Rich Petrone, whose stepson, Dan Rohrbough, was killed on a sidewalk outside the school, couldn't stop looking at another young man who was at the school that day, a child now grown.

"It kind of makes you wonder where Dan would be right now," he said.

The afternoon began with a private gathering with Clinton in a tent set up on a baseball field at Clement Park. The exchanges were brief - a handshake, a few words and a picture with the former president.

Then the families of those who died at Columbine, and the families of some of those who survived, slowly made their way up a hill to the stage.

There were the perfunctory mentions of politicians in the audience, there were thanks offered to the members of the committee who have worked to make the $1.5 million memorial a reality.

And there was a plea for $350,000 still needed to build the memorial: Bob Easton, chairman of the memorial committee, noted that the Raccoon Creek Golf Course had put up $50,000 if someone else would match it.

Then Dawn Anna Beck, Lauren Townsend's mother, brought a lump to the throat with her first words.

"They're here," she said. "Can you feel them? Our angels?

"Kyle. Kelly. Dan. Matt. Corey. Steven. Rachel. Daniel. John. Cassie. Isaiah. Dave. And my Lauren.

"We're here because we love them. We're here to honor them. We're here to remember them, this day, and every day hereafter. We're here as a family and as a community that's been through the darkest of days and is coming through to the light. We're here to break this ground on a memorial for precious loved ones because it's right, and it's time to do so."

She took those at the dedication back to that awful day - recalling the pain, the pledges to do better, the love and the support.

As she spoke, lightning crackled overhead and thunder rumbled across the sky.

"See," she said, "God remembers."

A few minutes later, she introduced Clinton, remembering his two earlier visits to Columbine. There had been a trip with Hillary Clinton a month after the shootings. And there had been a visit in July 2004 that included an emotional plea for donations to help build the memorial and a vow: "I will help you raise the rest of the money."

Friday, Clinton took another step toward that ultimate goal.

"Tell the Raccoon Creek Golf Club to get the check ready," he said. "I'll match it."

He spoke of the feeling of helplessness he felt in the hours after Columbine.

"Because, more than anything else, we think the natural order of things entitles every child to a safe home, a safe neighborhood, a safe school," he said. "Because of what you did and how you've lived, the way this community has kept together, the fact that graduates of the school come back and teach here, you remind us that even in the midst of tragedy, we've seen the very best - the best there is to see about our nation and about human nature."

Clinton, two Columbine pins on the lapel of his charcoal suit, offered an example set by Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, who lost both legs above the knees and one of his arms in Vietnam but who has never shown resentment.

"He thought that every day he had was a gift from God, and he didn't want to waste a second being anything less than grateful and good-hearted and reaching out," Clinton said. "His favorite quote was from Ernest Hemingway: 'The world breaks everyone, and afterwards, many are strong at the broken places.'

"Every day from now on, the world will break someone. These magnificent families, in memory of their children and their teacher, can help them always to be strong at the broken places."

Many of the young people the country came to know seven years ago were there Friday.

Seven years ago, Patrick Ireland was a critically injured young man pulling himself, bloody and battered, out a library window and into the arms of SWAT officers.

Friday, a smile crossed his face as he stood, sharply dressed in a dark suit, watching the groundbreaking, no sign of the injuries that led to a long rehabilitation.

Seven years ago, Sean Graves was a big-eyed teenager in a wheelchair, shaking hands with Clinton, facing a future in which he might never walk again.

Friday, he held hands with his girlfriend as he walked confidently down the sidewalk.

After the speeches, Clinton and the Columbine families moved a few yards to the east, where a ceremonial section of ground had been marked off.

Just as Clinton and the families moved to pick up the 29 ceremonial shovels, the rain stopped and the sun shone through the clouds.

And then, with a few turns in the gray-brown soil, the job was done.

Clinton posed for a few pictures with Dawn Anna Beck and Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis, waved to the crowd, and then began moving slowly from family to family.

And when he was done, and people seared by the pain of April 20, 1999, moved to embrace one another and wander off and chat, the rain came anew.

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