Saturday, December 15, 2012

With a heavy heart...

Yesterday there was another shooting. Specifically, another school shooting.

It was a in town in Connecticut. I quit reading the stories, as they were all confused and convoluted, but the gist of the matter is that a 20 year old man killed over 25 people. 20 of which were kindergartners.

20 kids that are Spencer's age. 20 innocent lives that were likely very excited about Santa coming, getting the "big" present, maybe thinking about being a doctor, an astronaut, a solider, a police officer or a ninja.  

20 sets of parents who never dreamed that when sending their kids to school on that terrible Friday morning that the rest of their lives would be changed for the worse. 

I cried at my desk all day as the news stories rolled in. A friend of a friend lost their nephew in the shooting. He was 6. 

We had our Christmas party at work last night and our CEO made a small, tasteful statement regarding the shooting, saying our thoughts and prayers were with the families and communities that were impacted. I know that there were very many eyes that watered up just at the simple statement.

The news has sensationalized this...Yahoo Shine! posted this morning on their facebook page asking if the surviving students should be allowed to be interviewed on TV. So many of the comments I read were a very simple NO!. Other's were appalled that they would even ask a question regarding this. Apparently some news outlets have been there since right after it happened, they have pictures of students being lead out by teachers. They are saying that the shooter was mentally ill (ya think?!) and I've seen Autism, OCD, Multiple Personality Disorder all tossed out there as possible reasons as to why he did this. People are crying out for more gun control, that we should restrict the ability for people to own guns. 

So many of these items are too close to home. We have a kindergarten aged child. We have several guns. We have family members with Autism, Schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

Now is not the time to be discussing if we should have more gun control, however. Now is not the time to blame the school for not having better security. 

Now is the time to grab your babies. Give them hugs. Give them loves. If they are old enough to understand, explain to them, gently. Send your thought and prayers to the community that has been effected in this terrible, terrible situation. Now is the time to let the area grieve. And thank your lucky stars that you and yours are safe.