Saturday, December 15, 2012

Pause

I had intended this space, for this year anyway, to be a time of remembering Christmas past.  However, in light of the tragedy in Newtown CT, it just seems wrong.
 Another of those times I just want to grab hold of a word or an action that will make a positive difference in a horrific situation.
 I don't know those people, but I'm a teacher and every time the announcement comes on with "the code," I play out scenarios of what I might try to do if it wasn't just a drill.
Now,  I see us being escorted to church by police and watching and watching the door, to never see our precious little first graders show up.  I'm afraid I can see their parents hopeful faces as they run in to grab their child and we have no little person to release into their arms.  Then having to leave with nothing, as the police do their work.  Have mercy.

Missy Bugg is six years old.
I would want the world to stop and let me off. I would want nothing to be the same, because nothing would be the same ever again.  I probably couldn't keep myself from trying to figure it out, to understand, to watch the TV and wonder why the media,  could possibly want to know how the kids were dressed.
Oh my!  Today, as I read that list of names, I will pray for those families, and for the nearly intolerable days they face.
Precious Jesus, hold their hand.

3 comments:

  1. This has been so tragic and I keep looking at Amara's kindergarten picture and struggling not to cry. There just aren't words for how terrible this is.

    And then there is the press who sticks a mic in the face of a child and asks "Were you scared?" "Did you cry?" I just scream at the TV "Are you stupid?"

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  2. Mia is in kindergarten and Jill in 4th grade. I have been a volunteer in the kindergarten room at the school around the corner. I can't imagine the pain. I picked them up from school that day and thanked God that they were fine because it could happen anywhere. I don't know why any civilian needs an assault rifle, but more than that, I wish there were more help for mental illness. I passed two people today driving my granddaughter home. One was dancing and singing to himself in the street median with no shirt or shoes, but a Santa hat. The other looked normal but was yelling at a motorist about needing help and no one would listen. What does this say about our society? I am feeling sad. I know in my heart that most people are good and caring but somehow we need to do more.

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  3. I think the President said it best: "Our hearts are broken." What else is there to say?

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