"Mommy, I'm okay,
But all my friends are dead."
But all my friends are dead."
One survivor. A 1st grade class. Can anything be more sorrowful than a statement like this? Everyone is asking, "why?" "How could this happen?" I'm not going to get into the politics of people's rights to own guns. Every situation is different. But the 'why' to this horrid travesty is obivious...
A sick young man had access to guns.
He killed his mother, and then he went to school. He took the lives of innocents. 8 adults and 20 children died last Friday. Could this particular incident have been avoided? Could it happen in your town? If the answer is yes, then ask yourself what you can do to make sure that it doesn't.
Please send prayers to the families
in Newtown, Connecticut.
in Newtown, Connecticut.
If there is any gift you can give,
this holiday season, this is it.
Rob Akers had a great idea on how to send compassion.
Today, like everyone else I am sad and thank you for your thoughts about those in Sandy Hook. I have a suggestion to pass along. At each hotel this week at a minimum, I am buying a few past cards and stamps. I am leaving them with the front desk staff and asking them to have people sign the cards and when they get full, to please mail them to this address:
Sandy Hook Elementary School
12 Dickenson Dr.
Newtown, CT 06482
Karlene - this story ripped me apart on so many levels and so many ways. One thing I remember of my father was flying with him and the family out to Denver, CO to take a tour of the corporate office where he worked. It was located outside of DEN in Englewood which is also down the road from Littleton, the site of Columbine HS Little did I know that when we returned from that trip, the Columbine HS shootings occurred only months if not days later.
ReplyDeleteI can not begin to tell you why both occasions ripped me. Probably because they all had such a bright future to live. Always thoughts, prayers and sympathies to all victims...
Thank you Jeremy, I feel the same way. And from a parent's perspective... I just cannot imagine.
DeleteThe entire world is feeling your pain, Newtown.
ReplyDeletePolitics aside, this is just a terrible tragedy.
Yes... it is. Thank you Cecilie.
DeleteSuch a horrible, tragic event, there are no words to convey our deeply felt sympathies. Thank you for this very important question, Karlene.
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda. They're tough questions...but must be asked. Not something we ever worried about sending our children to school.
DeleteKarlene,
ReplyDeleteI found you via Harrison Jones’ blog. It is exciting to find more folks like me who can fly and like you can write. In the future, I would like to talk airplanes, words and lighthearted things like that.
Today, like everyone else I am sad and thank you for your thoughts about those in Sandy Hook. I have a suggestion to pass along. At each hotel this week at a minimum, I am buying a few past cards and stamps. I am leaving them with the front desk staff and asking them to have people sign the cards and when they get full, to please mail them to this address:
Sandy Hook Elementary School
12 Dickenson Dr.
Newtown, CT 06482
If you could pass this on to all of the pilots out there, maybe we could collectively send some encouragement and love to the good people of Newtown.
Thanks,
rob akers
Rob, What a great idea!!! I'm going to post that in the post...and hopefully more will follow your lead. So nice to meet you!
DeleteThank you, Karlene, for devoting a day's space to this miserable event. We need the reminder, as unpleasant as it may be. For those who believe, "Never in "MY" community," that's what every town says. Some 15+ years ago, a small town near my Oregon town said exactly the same thing, "... it could never happen here." It DID happen and the town's residents, at least those who pay attention, have yet to fully recover. It may take three generations before the awful event moves from real to history. "Never here..." is a response that won't work and I wish that I had a better one; I don't. Our hearts are with the folks 2,000 miles away and we should know how to prevent this sort of thing, but we don't. Force, incarceration and stronger guns laws won't do it; we've already tried them. Better ideas folks. PLEASE? Thanks again for dedicating some space to this miserable subject. -C.
ReplyDeleteThank you Craig. You are spot on with the generations to come. Yet the haunting will always be there.
DeleteHow? I have three ideas: 1. I'm thinking mental health care. 2 and 3... Different gun laws: 2. Anyone owning a gun in their home (car, etc...) must have a fingerprint lock box. They are the only ones who can open the box. 3. Outlaw the assault rifles, and machine guns of any kind. Why does anyone need one of those? Not sure. But not necessary for protection, or hunting.
Those are my ideas. Anyone else?
I'm not sure how the fingerprint lockbox can be enforced but I sure as heck would make clear that illegal use of the firearms for any reason = legal liability.
DeleteI don't know how it would be enforced either, but it might make the honest people keep their kids safe.
Delete