I woke up this morning, a little bleary eyed but happy. I went to babysit a friend’s 6 month old while she volunteered at her daughter’s preschool. Nothing out of the ordinary. This afternoon I sat looking at my BlackBerry in disbelief as I read the stories out of Newtown Connecticut. I spent the better part of an hour just staring at my twitter feed on my BlackBerry as if my doing that would somehow change the news. I wanted this to be a tragic mistake, that somehow, through some kind of Christmas miracle, those children and adults wouldn’t be dead. I cried a bucket full of tears. It put everything in perspective – yeah the job hunt isn’t going great right now but I’ve got a supportive family and a great network of friends. It could be so much worse.
I just don’t understand what has to be going on in someone’s mind for them to take a semi automatic rifle into a school full of children. Yes there is something to be said for gun control but there is also something to be said for the identification and treatment of mental illness with which the shooter was clearly suffering. With the gunman amongst the dead, we will never know his true motivations. What I do know is that there are 26 people, 20 of them children who won’t get to celebrate Christmas. That is a national tragedy.
Please: Go hug your kids, your neighbour’s kids, a friend’s kids. Tell your family how much you love them and how mich they mean to you. Try and make something good come out of this truly senseless tragedy.
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