After the devastating event at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where 15 children were gunned down by two class mates, President Clinton made a statement.

He said, “We need to teach our children not to respond to situations with violence, that they should learn to live peacefully together.” This came on the heels of increased NATO bombing in Yugoslavia where more innocent citizens have been killed by these bombings than have been killed by the Serbs.

So what is the lesson here? Big guns and little guns can both kill when given to people who have rejected other means of solving their problems or conflicts. The two boys who murdered their classmates had no respect for human life and felt empowered to show this disdain by executing classmates because they were different, believed in something, or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The NATO forces, including the U.S. have stated that civilian casualties are to be expected in any war, that Serbians deserve to die, and they have a moral right to kill because these people are different than the ones they support.

To quote an old saying, “the apple falls not far from the tree.”