Forever in First Grade

Tomorrow, Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut is holding its high school graduation.

Before I go any further in my blog post, I must warn my readers that some of the following may be disturbing.

If you're still with me....here's a highway sign.  It's a simple highway sign.

Let's take a short drive into Connecticut.

The name "Newtown" may sound familiar to you. If it does, this is probably why:

On December 14, 2012, a 20 year gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  20 of them were first graders, and six of them were adult staff. (The gunman also killed his mother, bringing the final toll to 27.)

Those 20 first graders would have been graduating from high school next week.

Time flies, doesn't it.  Since then, there have been so many school and other mass shootings in our United States that some of them don't even make it past the local news.  

This essay written by a student who was the same age as the Sandy Hook students on that day is food for a lot of thought. 

It is said that the high school class of 2024 in Newtown has a special closeness, forged by that nightmare day and the many days after.

As for the staff:   One of those staff members, Mary Sherloch, grew up in the area where I live.  She was the school psychologist.

Perhaps that closeness growing out of grief would not have been a surprise to her.

But, we must never forget that the graduation tomorrow will be a few students short.  They were never given a chance to grow.   They will not walk across that stage with their peers, except, perhaps, in memory.

What will have become of them? We'll never know.

That is something to truly grieve for.

Tree Love #ThursdayTreeLove

It's Valentine's Day, the day of love.

And it is the second Thursday of the month, and time to blog about my love of trees. What to do?

It's no contest.  Today, I combine my two loves, sunset and trees.

February 2nd

There's something about winter sunsets, especially when there is a clear sky, bare trees and snow on the ground.

And some sadness.

Today is  the first anniversary of the horrific school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  

As someone who works in a community that suffered its own mass shooting (ours was in an adult classroom) on April 3, 2009, my heart goes out to the families and students/teachers/first responders who were impacted that day, and will be impacted for the rest of their lives.

I wonder if, one day, a school shooting survivor will become our President.  If so, I hope I live to see it.

Join Parul of Happiness and Food at #ThursdayTreeLove every second and fourth Thursday, and love a tree today.

And Again and Again and Again

The columbines in my yard are starting to open.  Once upon a time, they were just another pretty mid-spring flower.  Now, they have another meaning - the name of a high school where one of the first modern school shootings took place.  Now, these mass shootings have become epidemic.

Now, we face a crisis in our country - continuing gun violence. Day after day, month after month, the news reports roll in.  There are so many shootings that some barely get any news coverage.

We, the American people, have taken sides, and while we yell and posture at each other, the death toll mounts.  An elementary school massacre didn't resolve us to face the issue head on.  Several church massacres didn't. A nightclub shooting didn't.  Or a country music concert in Las Vegas.  Or....or...or.

We marched in Washington and it didn't help.

We gave everyone our thoughts and prayers, and then moved on, until the next mass shooting.

I speak as a resident of one of the many communities (Binghamton, New York) which has experienced this violence.

We tap dance around it. 


Our President is right when he says his responses, and our conversations, have become routine.  Everyone's response has become so predictable on both sides. More guns! Less guns! Fewer laws! More laws!  The guns were legal.  The guns were illegal.  The shooters were mentally ill.  The shooters were sane. The shooters were students. The shooters were Muslim.  The shooters were Christian. 

But, whatever is true, the people they killed are just as dead.  Their families are just as shattered.

How many more times will this article on the 28 deadliest mass shootings (yes, the Binghamton one appears on it) be updated before we come to a national consensus?

Or, will it be like the years leading up to the Civil War? We couldn't find a resolution to slavery, and we ended up with a terrible war, a terrible post war period, and echoes that still echo into our present day.  Will we be able to, finally, have an actual conversation, and actual, true action, to what is happening to our country?

Or will something so horrible, something none of us can now imagine, have to happen first?

Yes, I realize comparing gun violence to the United States Civil War is like comparing apples to oranges, or perhaps comparing a grape to a watermelon.  So let's think of these semi monthly massacres in a different way.

It is easy to think about terrorism.  It is us vs. them.  We are civilized.  They are pure evil.

But when it is us vs. us, it isn't so easy.

Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. You may or may not see it in whatever comments this blog piece produces.  (I don't expect agreement.  I do expect civility.)  When you look at the hate that similar posts on other blogs generates, it shows you how close to the edge we are - the edge of where people who speak out are demonized, and even have death threats directed against them.

Will Santa Fe, Texas be the tipping point?  Or are we still waiting?  Is this is how we will continue to define our country?

Our future as a united nation depends on it.