Who Shoots Kindergarten Kids?

Official seal of Newtown, Connecticut (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I wasn’t going to post anything about this.  The news have covered it to death, as they do anything like this.  Who shoots Kindergarten kids though?

I don’t care how mentally ill he was.  What the hell could a five year old do to this man, no matter how “disturbed” he was.

You can’t have your kids live in a bubble and what are the odds of this happening?

I feel awful for the kids who survived.  Not just did they have their classmates gunned down, several things will now be a theme.

They will always go through life with, “That could have been me.”

Shouldn’t the kids have several years of childhood in the holiday season, be it Channukah or Christmas or Kwanzaa, or anything else celebrated at this time of year?  Yes, there will be therapy for them, but for a generation growing up in Newtown, Connecticut, the end of the year has a whole new meaning, and it isn’t a good one.  True, it’s not fair and life is not fair.  These kids’ childhood has been stolen.

They go away to college.  Their dorm mates are enjoying the parties of the holiday season, but for the kid from Newtown, Connecticut, will they be able to join in the seasonal festivities by then?  Or will there always be a nagging feeling of something not right?

I hate to draw comparisons with the tragedy of the nurse and the British Royal Family here but I will draw one.  Both situations share a lesson.  An action, started a chain.   The suicide of the nurse was faster than the years the five year olds of Newtown, Connecticut grow up with.  Now THERE is a social science study for someone.  Not for notoriety’s sake, but a legitimate study to see the chain reaction actions can cause.  Issac Newton was right.  An equal and opposite reaction.

Related articles

• Elementary school massacre: 26 dead, including 18 kids, in Connecticut (usnews.nbcnews.com)
• Kindergarten Readiness: More Than Academics (education.com)
• Connecticut school shooting: live coverage (telegraph.co.uk)
• Connecticut school shooting: ‘Multiple deaths’ at Newton elementary school (telegraph.co.uk)

Let me close this with comments from my friend and partner with Conference Presentations.

 

I’m horrified by today’s school shooting. The massacre sobers us all. As we try to make sense of the senseless, we also try to find places to put the blame. Places that will make us feel safe. But there is no easy answer.

I wish simple solutions would work, but I don’t have a lot of faith that they will.

Stricter gun laws? Criminals and would-be criminals don’t pay attention to the laws. (Murder is illegal, but that doesn’t stop killers–no matter what their weapon of choice.)

Psychological testing? It’s easy to fool the system if you put your mind to it.

Regulating violent movies and entertainment content? Those who are disturbed and prone to violence will find ways of feeding that obsession.

How DO we make people revere human life? I don’t have an answer, but it seems to me the societies that are most successful at this are the ones who have the deepest spiritual roots. The second most successful are the ones with–yes–strict laws; laws enforced with swift, harsh (even cruel and unusual) penalties. But even those observations aren’t answers, and they, too, are simplistic.

The bottom line is: I don’t know how to make sense of this tragedy or prevent the next one. I can only grieve, pray, put one foot in front of the other, and go on day by day. And, as some wise posters have said, remember that life is fragile and finite–so take every chance to tell you family and friends that you love them. Because none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow.