While listening to news of the tragic events in Littletown, Colo., I heard many people asking the same question: Why? May I suggest there are, at least, a few answers staring us in the face. Culturally, we are, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, an enigma wrapped in a paradox. President Clinton comes on the tube, and in his most patent-leather facade, deplores student violence, while in the next breath promising ever more violence overseas.

We, like our nation’s leaders, see no disparity in proclaiming our love for God and slaughtering his children. Our media reek of violence. The evening news is not complete without some act of idiocy that takes another life. How we ask why? Robert W. Ronco Corinth