Awakened Consciousness?
One struggles to find words for the horror and heartbreak that so envelopes us over this past weekend.
Innocence destroyed. Precious little lives terrorized and snuffed out even before they had truly begun to live.
Who could believe that in this day and age and in our great and civilized country we could ever see a day like this? A day we could not protect our own children from the ravages of a crazed killer and our love affair with guns.
As written the other day, we have unfortunately become desensitized and "used to" gun shootings in our nation -- even mass shootings.
But, nothing could have prepared us for what occurred this past Friday in an elementary school in a quaint and peaceful Connecticut town. -- Nothing.
As President Obama said at a memorial services last night, we cannot tolerate as price for our freedoms, the lives of our most vulnerable and innocent.
One hopes those are not just hollow words.
While over the years I have been impressed with our President's skills as an inspirational and brilliant speaker, I have not been so impressed with his actual leadership skills. (President Obama has been weak on gun legislation and has actually signed into law, bills expanding gun rights.)
But it is hoped that the sheer atrocity of this past weekend has finally opened national eyes and awakened consciousness to needed actions.
The 26 lives gunned down in madness this past Friday cannot go unheeded and unanswered.
We cannot allow these 20 beautiful and innocent children to have died in vain, as "price" for our selfish and irrational love of guns or our demands for freedom and entitlements without boundaries and at any costs.
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"She Had a Passion of Animals"
The photos and all too brief bios of the murdered children of Sandy Hook are heart-searing.
It is impossible for any of us to truly understand the suffering and incalcuable loss of the parents and siblings of the children who have perished in such diabolical fashion. Indeed, there is hole in their hearts and lives that can never be filled and wound that can never be healed.
Parental statements often include the children's "love of animals."
One such example is a precious six-year-old girl named Catherine Hubbard, one of the victims of the December 14th massacre.
According to her bereaved parents, little Catherine had a "passion of animals" and hoped to open a shelter when she grew up.
Her parents have requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the local animal shelter in honor of their cherished daughter's name.
While not much, this is a small thing some of us can hopefully do to honor and mourn this precious little girl and help the animals she so loved.
The world is far less for her loss and the 25 others so brutally and prematurely taken.
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Parental Responsibility
In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings, there has been much needed discussion about strengthening gun laws and better funding of our mental health care systems (which have been cut in recent years).
Surprisingly, there has been little discussion about parental responsibility.
Although at this point little is actually known about the shooter and his motivations, what has been determined is that his mother was a "gun enthusiast" and kept multiple guns in the home -- including the high powered assault rifle used to kill 20 children and 6 adults at the Sandy Hook elementary school.
Nancy Lanza apparently took her son to gun ranges in order to teach him "respect" for guns and presumably how to shoot.
One cannot help but seriously question why a parent, knowing that his/her son has emotional issues or (according to the brother) a "personality disorder" would keep an arsenal of guns in the home?
That is like a parent of an alcohol or pot using teenager, stocking the home with heroin.
Reported by Piers Morgan of CNN, Adam Lanza also spent hours playing violent video games.
Perhaps it is no small (but sad) irony that Nancy Lanza ultimately became victim of her own guns in the hands of the son she apparently drew few if any limits for.
Only there were 26 other victims -- innocent victims who played no role in the nurturing of a walking time bomb.
Surviving victims and families of mass gun carnage should be able to sue the parents whose household guns end up as the ultimate weapons in mass shootings. -- PCA
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2 comments:
Patty,
You certainly have a gift to get to the "heart of the matter". I thank you for your friendship - and your blogs...Because of the blog you sent about the little girl who wanted to open a pet shelter, I am sending a donation in her memory...certainly , a small gesture, but one that makes me feel a little less helpless.
Mary Castrovilla
Thank you, Mary and thank you so much for your tireless dedication and work on behalf of our maligned and slaughtered geese.
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