(Amanda Greene, from Wilmington FAVS, asked that we write something re our reaction to, and feelings about, the devastating tragedy in CT yesterday...this is my response)
My initial reaction to this tragedy was just pure grief and immediately my heart went out to the parents and families of these precious little children. That it happened during the holiday season, on the 7th day of Hanukkah and so close to Christmas, just seems to make it all the sadder. Once the grief was absorbed deeply into my bones, I felt a sense of anger at the unjustness of it all and my anger was directed squarely on the NRA and our congressional leaders for not doing something about the abuse and misuse of guns in our country.
When I told my husband the sad news, he said, "I just hope their deaths weren't in vain." After thinking about his comment for some time, I came to believe that it's up to us, all of us, not to allow these deaths to be in vain. Our nation needs to grieve together for a time and then we need to hold each of the victims in our hearts as we come together to figure out how we can do better in our country. If we allow this tragedy to stir up all the political animosity and we make it an issue of the conservatives vs the progressives, no one gains and these deaths will become just another part of the gun statistics in America. And then, before we know, it will happen again and then again and each time the victims will have died in vain. As I made my way through this process of trying to sort it all out, I realized my anger was gone, it simply served no purpose.
Today, I am still feeling a deep sense of grief for everyone involved and a very real concern about the process it will take for these children who lived through the trauma to ever feel safe again. I feel for the families and the pain they will endure for the rest of their lives. I feel for the teachers who will need to go back into that school and overcome their own fears enough to help the children get past theirs. I feel for the law enforcers who had the horrendous job of piecing it all together and identifying the tiny bodies and the counselors who had to tell the parents that their child had beed identified. I feel for the clean up crew who will have to go into this gruesome mess and make it all go away so that it will look 'normal' again. I feel for the whole town and especially the children who, at the very least, have lost a bit of their innocence. And, I feel for the grandmothers, not only because they lost a grandchild, but now they must live with the knowledge that there was nothing they could do to prevent the indescribable pain their own child is suffering.
I am still so overwhelmed by this that I simply cannot see straight. However, I DO know, & I am adamantly committed, to do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to bring about the change that with will end this violence & the horrendous pain & grief it brings.
ReplyDeleteI feel that there is so much frustration & violence simmering just under the surface that has pitted us against each other & that we are mere puppets, acting out the plans of others for their self-interests. The madness that brings us to cut funding for mental healthcare; the shameless lobbying & all out control of our politics by the gun merchants & their cabal…… It is as if we are dazed & confused & don’t know what’s true, let alone what’s right anymore. We are punch drunk from it all & simply want it to all go away.
And YES! We owe to those little ones & their families, as well as the survivors & their families & to all the people attempting to live their lives that this WILL matter & the deaths & pain & grief will not be in vain.