I spent the weekend in a sort of fog of sadness after hearing the news of the killings in Connecticut. I just can't comprehend the horror. I can't stop worrying about the little kids who survived: how will this affect their lives?
The worst part is that I don't know how to help. I can give money, but it seems so empty. This is the kind of tragedy that leaves you helpless. It always relieves sorrow when you can do something actively to help. Hurricane Sandy? I can donate clothes and supplies! Cystic Fibrosis? I can support research! Homeless for the holidays? I can cook you warm food!
But your six-year-old was murdered? I can only stand numbly by and offer generic words of condolence.
I don't even know how to pray for these families.
There are some ways to help, which SUAR helpfully listed on her blog - check it out if you can.
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I just got finished calling all of my students' parents to touch base about what the kids know about the shootings. First graders shouldn't have to know these things, but I know some will hear from parents or older siblings and some will hear on the bus and playground. I am desperately hoping not to have to talk about it tomorrow, but if my kids have questions and concerns I'll be focusing on reassuring them about all the things we do to keep them safe...and trying hard not to cry thinking about Friday's tragedy in a school that seems at this point to have had good, strong safety procedures in place.
ReplyDeleteYeah I kept having the same thoughts....how on earth are those classmates going to react?? This is certainly going to affect them for the rest of their lives. No good way for my brain to interpret all of this.
ReplyDeleteCompletely with you on this. I think the only way to help is to do our part to enact real change in our society so that this doesn't happen again.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! I've been praying hard and trying to come up with a way to help...but I've got nothing and you are right, money just doesn't seem to cut it.
ReplyDeleteAwful. This is the worst I've felt about something since 9/11. I probably shouldn't get too political here, but I hope this spurs new gun control legislation to be passed, since to me this is the only solution to this. Australia and Japan have very strict gun control laws, and they have almost zero gun related homicides every year. Mental health is important too, but until you take away the main tool that people use to kill people in mass quantities (guns), things like this will likely continue to happen. The only question is when. I guess in my perfect world no one in the US would have a gun, except for police and military. And the penalties for gun possession would be a 10 year prison sentence. This would stop people from having guns. Though this likely will never happen in the US where people love guns and the NRA has a massively powerful lobby group that has hijacked the 2nd amendment of the constitution.
ReplyDeleteI felt helpless after the tragedy happened, so the only thing I could think of to do was to email my House of Representative, Senator and the President to ask for stricter gun control laws. RIP to the victims.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2c9171%2c2121660%2c00.html