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| Three to five inches expected today |
Every Saturday, I have a Sustainability Saturday feature but today I am going to deviate from my normal theme. Sustainability is more than farmer's markets and buying local. Sustainability is also living in respect of each other, and insuring that a community and its family are nourished in times of need.
Today is the first anniversary of the Newtown, CT school massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The city of Newtown is commemorating this anniversary quietly, with a Day of Service.
Yesterday, Littleton, Colorado had its second brush with a school shooting. I came close to cancelling this post, but I decided I needed to continue.
We here in Binghamton, New York, are connected to Newtown in a couple of ways.
We lost one of our own in the Newtown massacre. The school psychiatrist, Mary Sherlach, was one of the casualties. She went to high school in Vestal, near Binghamton, New York.
Newtown isn't the first time our community lost a teacher or a school employee in a mass shooting. On April 3, 2009, we suffered our own mass shooting, in Binghamton, with 14 (including the shooter) who died in a classroom in the American Civic Association. So we in Binghamton know what it is like to have a mass shooting in our community.
One of the dead was the teacher, Roberta King, a 72 year old mother of ten and grandmother of 17.
The dead of these tragedies are not just statistics, and I'd like you to experience some of Bobbie King's legacy. I know someone who knows the person who Bobbie King took the place of on that day. She hadn't been scheduled to work - she subbed for a teacher who wanted a special 40th wedding anniversary of her husband.
I don't have information on the other dead from the ACA shooting but they deserve our remembrance, too. If you knew any of them, I welcome your comments on my blog.
Our community enjoys a yearly seasonal museum called Hanukkah House. Bobbie King would display her collection of dolls, and a beautiful custom built dollhouse she owned, at Hanukkah House each year, and her family continues the tradition.
I love this furniture - don't you? It's so hard to believe these are miniatures.
These are a couple of pictures of the interior of the dollhouse I took last Sunday. The detail is beautiful - the hours Bobbie must have spent on this.
These are some pictures I took last year.
It's a hard thing, recovering from this type of tragedy. Today, as the peaceful snow comes down, my thoughts are with the people of Newtown, Connecticut and Littleton, Colorado.
Gosh, five inches of snow! Is that very common?
ReplyDeleteThis was an emotional read, living in the UK, I often forget about those massacres.
So sad. Even words if you know someone who died in the tragedy. I feel for everyone concerned and hope grief will fade with time. Snow is a perfect muffle. Wonderful pictures which make a fine memorial for Roberta King.
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