The events of yesterday's shooting at Newtown are still raw. The details are still a bit sketchy but the fact is that twenty kids are not going to have a Christmas this year. Twenty sets of parents have to bury their children. These things are not supposed to happen as Aurora was not supposed to happen, as the Jeffords shooting was not supposed to happen.
All these mass shootings have a couple of things in common. A lone man, and guns - and I have no real answers how to prevent either from doing horrendous acts. I do not think turning a school building into an armed camp is an answer. I do not think arming everything and everyone to fulfill a Walter Mitty heroic fantasy is the answer. It's the reluctance to try anything but the status quo that continually baffles me after these murderous events occur. We sure took care of Four Loko quick though.
It's being reported that the shooter may have had Aspbergers or some other mental disorder. Another quiet kid, who kept to himself then exploded. How do these kids get treated? What psychiatric and medical facilities were available to this family, who were not poor? And did they take advantage of them?
Twenty people were wounded by a man with a knife in Shanghai yesterday. Those people are most likely going to recover from their injuries. The kids in the kindergarten classroom, not as lucky. I do not usually go to writing a poem after such a disaster has happened. Could not help it this time though.
So I've been hugging my son often, even though I'm a bit put out since he's been awake since 4AM. At least I can hear him singing, and happy, unlike twenty families in Connecticut whose homes are infected by a cruel silence this morning.
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