Imagine what it must feel like. Panic. Fire. Blood. This is a school shooting; this is what happened today at 9:40 a.m. in Sandy Hook Elementary School, Connecticut, USA.
It's not the pictures that kill me, surprisingly. It's the numbers. 27-- 20 kids, 6 teachers (including the principal, I think) and the shooter himself. I cannot even begin to express the grief that the whole nation is feeling right now. You know what hurts? Not paper cuts, not skinned knees. It's the fact that these kids' futures have been ripped away from them. Ages 4-10, these kids will never experience school dances. The first day of high school. Physics. Graduation. College. Professors. Weddings. Jobs. I mean, all it took was somebody with no right to pick up that gun, no right to fire it, "100 rounds" as one parent who was there described it. This is more than gun control, debating, or blaming Obama... this is more than a political brouhaha. Put away your arguments for a moment. Just breathe. Grieve for these lives lost. For all the futures that will never happen. For the teachers who aspired to make these children better. Pray no matter your religion. For survivors, parents, anyone directly or indirectly affected by this tragedy.
I guess this is learning about life. Another part in Anya's Learning How To Grow Up. The director of my school announced it today. She was choking up. Crying, almost. She said: "This could have been any one of us. You are all so precious...I know you think that when we have lockdown drills, it's just a silly precaution, but then something like this happens and it's not."
The weird thing is that I am not at all directly affected by this...not my school, relatives, friends, teachers. And yet I can feel. What's that emotion called? Long-distance sadness, maybe.
Today, I fold cranes for Sandy Hook. :)
Coming Soon: Pop-up cards are beautiful!
It's not the pictures that kill me, surprisingly. It's the numbers. 27-- 20 kids, 6 teachers (including the principal, I think) and the shooter himself. I cannot even begin to express the grief that the whole nation is feeling right now. You know what hurts? Not paper cuts, not skinned knees. It's the fact that these kids' futures have been ripped away from them. Ages 4-10, these kids will never experience school dances. The first day of high school. Physics. Graduation. College. Professors. Weddings. Jobs. I mean, all it took was somebody with no right to pick up that gun, no right to fire it, "100 rounds" as one parent who was there described it. This is more than gun control, debating, or blaming Obama... this is more than a political brouhaha. Put away your arguments for a moment. Just breathe. Grieve for these lives lost. For all the futures that will never happen. For the teachers who aspired to make these children better. Pray no matter your religion. For survivors, parents, anyone directly or indirectly affected by this tragedy.
I guess this is learning about life. Another part in Anya's Learning How To Grow Up. The director of my school announced it today. She was choking up. Crying, almost. She said: "This could have been any one of us. You are all so precious...I know you think that when we have lockdown drills, it's just a silly precaution, but then something like this happens and it's not."
The weird thing is that I am not at all directly affected by this...not my school, relatives, friends, teachers. And yet I can feel. What's that emotion called? Long-distance sadness, maybe.
Today, I fold cranes for Sandy Hook. :)
Coming Soon: Pop-up cards are beautiful!
No comments:
Post a Comment