I don't normally comment on current events/news of the day, but the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut touched a nerve with me.
So here are some thoughts.
I have only three first cousins. One lives in Newtown, and is married with three kids, none of whom are first-grade age. I don't know how much sleep she's had in the last 48 hours. She has to be heartbroken-- violence has penetrated what seemed like a safe and quiet community, and she (and countless others) undoubtedly knows parents who are trying to make funeral arrangements. I saw her being active on Facebook during the day and it was reassuring.
For me, church is a place of solace-- a place where I say words, hear words spoken and listen to music. It helps me get my week off to a great start. We had a good discussion in Sunday School, and our priest had a good message. He spoke not as a priest but as a parent of a 10 and 6-year old, and the pain and hurt and confusion were evident in his words and in the furrow on his brow. I didn't find any answers in church, none of us did. But there was no anger in his voice, and it was soothing to me that hatred was not spoken and that God's love was.
Which brings me to parents. I'll include educators here as well. What is it like to go to work or to be a parent and send our kid to school, knowing the randomness could strike them next? Isn't school supposed to be a place where folks can learn and be safe?
The pattern is pretty much the same-- we've seen it so many times before. Shooting incident is followed by shock/outrage, which cues the media horde that descends to report/exploit the event by sticking microphones in the faces of those who grieve. Then we talk about the heroes who saved the lives of others, we make speeches and bracelets, get video of a few funerals, and hang around town for a few days until the buzz dies down, only to return in one/five/ten years to talk about it all over again. I can almost see the items being checked off the list as they happen.
And what makes me the saddest-- is that this will happen again. Newtown is the newest addition to the list of cities that have experienced this -- Phoenix, Blacksburg, Jonesboro, Paducah, Aurora, Littleton... And nothing has changed. To me, it means that folks in those communities died for nothing. They were struck down as tragically as those in Connecticut, but there has been plenty of time to figure something out so that this doesn't happen again. But we haven't. I believe that if a variable is changed, the result should change as well.
No variables have changed, so the result won't change. And the teachers and six-year-olds of Newtown, Connecticut will also have died for nothing.
