I didn’t know how to talk about the Sandy Hook school shooting. I didn’t say anything about it on Twitter Friday, because a lot of people were using it as a stepping stool to get on their soap box about gun control and mental health issues, which is understandable, but at the same time, I felt that berating the internet and social media with such opinionated fervor took away from the real tragedy of what happened to the students, teachers, and administrators. My first thoughts when reading about the shooting that morning were filled with anger. All I wanted to do was get on Twitter and yell at nobody in all caps. But I reasoned with myself, what good would that have done to anyone? So, I just kept the victims and their families in my thoughts all day and through the weekend, and kept my feelings off the internet.
I remember when the shooting at VA Tech happened, and after that there just seemed to be an onslaught of reports about school shootings, even though they’d started reaching commonality since the 90′s. There would be days in college when I would be walking to class and wonder, “Is that going to happen here today?” There was a suspicious package mailed to one of the dorms in the middle of campus, and I wondered, “Was it serious? Would they have told us if it wasn’t?” Nothing official was ever reported on it. I know how anxious it can make students to wonder if their school is going to be next; I can’t imagine how it must have felt for the Sandy Hook children to experience that. It’s hard enough for teenagers and adults to process that kind of tragedy, but a child?
Because I had already scheduled a post to go up Friday before I’d heard about the shooting, I decided to take yesterday off from blogging. Today I just want to honor and remember the children, teachers, and administrators who were lost and pray for their families and friends. It is a truly terrible thing that happened, and I don’t understand why it had to happen, but my only solace is in knowing that they are in a better place. I have to believe in that. I have to believe that the best thing we can do to help each other and to help ensure that things will get better is to show the world and its people more compassion and understanding and care, even though it can be so difficult in doing that sometimes.
“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.” —J.K. Rowling
