LETTERS: LITTLETON, CAPE ARE MUCH ALIKE

To the editor:

As a former Cape Girardeau resident living in Littleton, Colo., I couldn't help but think about my former hometown this week. Like all of the 35,000 residents of Littleton, my wife and I are struggling to cope with the senseless tragedy that occurred at Columbine High School here in Littleton.

Littleton and Cape Girardeau share so much in common. They could easily be sister cities. Both cities are approximately the same size. Each city is an ideal place to live. Although Littleton is a bedroom community of Denver, it boasts a small-city character not unlike that of Cape Girardeau. Littleton Boulevard in downtown Littleton even looks for all the world like Main Street in downtown Cape Girardeau. If I had been asked to submit a list of high schools in the Denver area where such a tragedy might occur, it is doubtful that any of the Littleton schools would have made the list. Certainly Columbine High School would not have been on it. Columbine reminds me in so many ways of my alma mater, Notre Dame High School in Cape Girardeau, from which I graduated in 1957. Both Columbine High School and Notre Dame High School are excellent schools, blessed with many bright students. Both are noted for graduating students with great potential. Thousands of graduates from the two schools who have gone on to contribute to society throughout their adult years attest to that. It is unthinkable that a tragedy of this magnitude could ever happen at either school. Yet we all know that it did happen.

The worst school violence in U.S. history occurred at Columbine High School. Why? Could it have happened in Cape Girardeau? Sadly, the answer is yes. It could happen anywhere. But it does not have to happen. To all high school students in Cape Girardeau I ask that you please be alert for signs that a fellow student might be troubled and contemplating violence. If you do know of someone like that, please encourage him or her to seek help from a counselor, a health-care professional, a clergyman or whomever. Please treat any threat of violence seriously. Report it to the proper authorities immediately. You could be instrumental in preventing a tragedy. We must all see that this never happens again.

BILL MULLENLittleton, Colo.