The ethnic media covered Littleton, but with a difference. Ethnic writers, familiar with marginalization and intolerance, brought a unique perspective that shed some light on the senselessness. PNS monitors the Chinese-, Spanish-, Vietnamese-, Japanese-, Korean-, Arabic-language news media as well as English-language newcomer and native-born ethnic press published and/or distributed widely in California. "Gleanings from the Ethnic Media" is a regular weekly column compiled by Emil Guillermo, host of "NCM: New California Media TV" (seen on PBS station KCSM-TV60 in the Bay Area); assisted by Pacific News Service and the NCM Network. Just as the alternative news media connected the disaffected populations in the 1960s, so in the 1990s the ethnic media connects the new ethnic majority communities of California -- to one another and to the larger public forum.

EYEWITNESS IN LITTLETON: Diwata Perez, an 18 year old Filipino American at Columbine High, was studying in the library with three friends when gunmen burst in. All three were shot, one fatally -- Lauren Townsend, the class valedictorian and Perez's science project partner.

Lauren said, "This better not be a senior prank, because it is not funny," Perez told the Philippine News (San Francisco). Once hit, "she died instantly." Perez tries to block those horrifying moments. "I do not want to see the picture of Lauren dying."

Her mother spoke of noticeable differences in her behavior. "She is simply traumatized, even is she was not hurt physically.

The young woman expresses guilt at being spared while her friend died. "Why not me?" she asks. "I thought that Lauren was better than me. She had a 4.0 GPA, and she had a lot ahead of her."

These feelings echoed those expressed in her entry in the school's graduation speech contest, which talks of coming to terms with being a minority in Littleton.

"I used to loathe my parents for giving me my name," she wrote. "'Diwata -- what kind of name is that?’' people would say. I was ashamed. Why couldn't my parents name me Jennifer or Lisa, I would ask. I just wanted to fit in. ...

"As a child growing up in a crowd where conformity was the 'in' thing, I tried to conceal my individuality. I often disguised my identity with a mask. "It was not until high school when I learned my most valuable lesson. I was putting my books away, when my neighbor asked me nonchalantly, 'Are you an illegal alien? The bell rang and all I could do was sit there. ... It slapped me in the face so hard I felt my mask fall... crashing onto the floor into a million pieces.

"I was different. I did not like all the clothes everyone was wearing. I did not like the shoes that cost $50 that I begged my mom to buy so I could fit into the crowd. ...I had my own style and opinion.

"I grew to love my name as a key to my heritage. ...I was born a Filipino American. It was the first time I had opened my eyes.

"I am part of America...Diversity is what makes America unique. ...With each of my experiences I gained tolerance. To look deeply into any person's heart and not judge him by the way he looks on the outside."

LESSON FROM COLUMBINE: "It's perplexing that parents and teachers couldn't read the signs of what was about to happen at Columbine," reads an editorial in La Opinion (Los Angeles). "The lesson is that no community in this country, urban or suburban, is invulnerable to school violence. Simply because violence is imbedded in our culture and its message permeates every social structure. We should not fall asleep when worrisome signs appear before us. But it's not easy to achieve this. Student culture creates its proper codes and languages, and it builds barriers to protect itself from adults. But responsible instructors should know how to read students' worries and dilemmas."

CULTURE OF DEATH: "There is an ill culture" in America, writes Chul Lee, editor-in-chief for the Korea Times of San Francisco. "According to a research, American children watch 8,000 or more killings through TV and video, before graduating from elementary school and more than 200,000 before graduating high school. Students' suicide rate has increased 300% since 1960s.

"A 'Culture of Death," which glorifies killings and suicides is controlling youth. Death is cool and killing has become heroic. ... It is similar to getting the flu by inhaling infected air.

"Before parents are able to teach 'love'’ TV and video are already teaching our children 'death."'

BLAME GAME: Can we honestly say that this happened only because these kids were crazy, or because their parents didn't raise them right, or because they listened to Marilyn Manson one too many times?" Quynh-Vi Nguyen wrote in Cali Today (Vietnamese-San Jose)

"It's obvious that this kind of crisis cannot be solved with simple solutions. Gun control won't do it, nor will changing movie ratings, nor will congressional action, or even prayer. ...

"Marilyn Manson may be guilty of making really bad music, but that doesn't mean he caused the Columbine shooting.

"But if we don't blame the music, who else is there to take the fall?...It takes... a village to raise a child, and it also takes the whole village to ruin one. In this case, the entire Littleton community will have to share the blame for the tragedy to some extent."

ODD OUT: "Littleton is a shocking symptom of what we already know exists everywhere," reads the editorial in the Philippine News. "We are witnessing it in Kosovo. We know about it from survivors of the Holocaust and the Killing Fields. In our ancestral country, it remains the motivation behind the ongoing assaults in Mindanao.

"Hate is the culprit. Hatred for what is different, possibly mysterious, altogether unfamiliar thus unacceptable...How many times have we heard 'Go back to where you came from! ..."

"The tragedy of Littleton is that this hatred found its way into hearts and minds so young and malleable...They were just children."