Letters from Eric

Jesse has held onto handwritten letters from his middle school best friend, Eric, for the last 20 years. After Eric moved away, they wrote back and forth for years but eventually lost touch. Then one day in his senior year, Jesse saw live coverage on TV of the Columbine shooting. The next morning, he discovered his friend Eric Harris' face on the cover of the newspaper.

Jesse saw Eric’s face on the front page of the newspaper the next morning. He went to school and at first he was numb. Within 24 hours, the media headlines declared Eric was “pure evil.” Jesse understood what Eric did was horrific, but he couldn't process how Eric was being portrayed. So he wrote a letter addressed to the parents and teachers and implored them to look at the societal and environmental factors of Columbine High School that had helped to create the shootings.

For the next decade, he could only focus on what people got wrong about Eric. As his artistic career grew, Jesse was commissioned to choreograph a performance piece. He took the opportunity to confront his feelings about Eric. In the show, Jesse used surrealism, fantasy, and audience participation to confront the “monster narrative” that blames bad things on one evil monster. “People look at someone like Eric and think ‘I could never,’ Jesse says. “But it’s a mistake to assume that we aren’t capable of terrible things.”

Some of what Jesse says might make you squirm. Is it important to consider Eric Harris beyond how his life ended? Do we need Eric to be evil, or does considering his humanity mean that we are also capable of terrible things?

This story tracks a 20-year journey to reconcile the world’s perception with a personal perception.