In this essay by Marilyn Manson, the topic up for discussion is who is held accountable for the tragedy at Columbine. Marilyn Manson’s apparent purpose for writing this essay is to persuade the reader that it is not so easy to blame one person or one thing for what happened. He makes very

good points when he backs up his claim that you can’t blame the entire circumstance on just one thing. For example, he states how it was first reported that Harrison and Klebold wore make-up and dressed like him. It was also reported that they liked his music. In fact, none of this was true. One can see how misinformation can cause blame to be shifted to the wrong place. Next, he states how other notorious killers were held responsible for their own actions. This points out how the media and America didn’t try to find a scapegoat then. Lastly, Marilyn Manson points out how his music often gets misunderstood. The media interprets the lyrics one way, when in fact there’s a deeper message in them. You can’t take them at only face value, you have to dig deeper and find the message that’s not plainly spoken.

It is my person belief that Marilyn Manson states the facts in an intelligent manner and sufficiently back up his claim. I have to agree with almost everything he says. For example, I also believe that Harrison and Klebold should he held totally responsible for their actions. Simply because they are no longer here to accept punishment for what they did, does not mean America can just find someone else to blame and accept the punishment for them. For those that argue the two boys became inspired to do this horrible act from a song, I have to say that they probably already had ideas in their head to do something like this and music was not the last straw that finally sent them over the edge. I think music and media violence was just the most convenient thing to blame at the time. At the most it was a fraction of the circumstances that drove them to commit this act. In conclusion, it is my belief that Marilyn Manson was unjustly blamed for such a horrible act. He just happened to be an easy scapegoat to attack and it is just not that simple to blame one person or thing for what happened.