PRAY for the families in Connecticut...

[mockturtle]

It is incomprehensibly tragic.  My prayers are for the families, the community and our nation.  As in 9/11, we share the sorrows of our fellow citizens.  And a classroom of little children!!!  What could be worse?  :-(

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

Read about this before bed as it was breaking, and they just said the shooter was dead and 3 people sent to hospital.&nbsp; <img rel="lightbox" src="/images/boards/smilies/frown.gif" class="bbc_img" /> Such horrific news.&nbsp; Already praying for the families.

 

[yesican]

<p>If I could just hold the parents and siblings of those babies who were murdered.&nbsp; Just so they would have a shoulder and a heart to lean on. I pray they have an angel to bring them some kind of comfort.&nbsp; And, what about those in the building who survived but could do nothing?&nbsp; That feeling I do know. Last March I watched&nbsp;a little boy be tossed from his Blazer and have it land on him.&nbsp; His mom and I could not move the truck and all I could do was hold the mom why her little boy lay beneath that truck with only his head and one little hand sticking out....helpless...total utter feeling of helpness and a desire to bring back&nbsp;his life.&nbsp; Its an overwhelming feeling.&nbsp; The pain these people have who were there and could do nothing is horrible, too.&nbsp; Pray for them along with the families left behind.&nbsp; <br /><br />Rae</p>

 

[twokniveskatie]

WM- take it to a different thread.

 

[Where~the~wind~blows]

I cannot imagine the pain the families are suffering tonight, in 10 days there will be homes without the laughter of their children, and hugs and kisses from their parents, brothers, sisters...., gifts that will not be opened, hearts that are breaking....To me I don't care who or what you believe in, I wish them all the strength and love the world can offer.

 

[Where~the~wind~blows]

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 18px;">TURN OFF THE NEWS.......</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 18px;">Morgan Freeman's brilliant take on what happened yesterday :</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 18px;">"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 18px;" /><div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 18px;"><br />It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed<br />people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.<br /><br />CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.<br /><br />You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."</div>

 

[twokniveskatie]

We have often talked about the book "the gift of fear" by Gavin De Becker. It was recently available as a free ebook on amazon, and many here downloaded the book. I just reread it, and he dedicates a whole chapter to just this theory. Unlike Morgan Freeman, DeBeckers belief is based on decades of working in the business of protection, and violence prediction. If you read the book, and especially that chapter, it may make more sense than just a sound bite from a movie star. It certainly will be food for thought.

 

[josephusminimus]

It would be comforting to have someone to blame for all this.&nbsp; The media, guns, the Second Amendment, drugs, anything a person could get his teeth into and sincerely believe if this, or that, or the thing over there changed, this would stop.<br /><br />I'd gladly crusade for whchever I was able to convince myself was responsible for it to be severely, &nbsp;harshly held accountable.<br /><br />Fact is, it happens too frequently and has happened so often in human history, ancient and recent history, in such a widespread setting it can't be a one-size-fits-all explanation.&nbsp; Why were those troopers at Wounded Knee killing any kids they could draw a bead on?&nbsp; Why did the Apache and Comanche routinely kill children as readily as adults?&nbsp; And so on, on every continent, in every country on the planet probably as long as their have been countries.<br /><br />Maybe there's something we ought to be learning about ourselves before we can make enough sense of it to find a way of stopping it.

 

[minimotos95]

in all honestly, i'm not surprised, it has happened over and over again.&nbsp;always some&nbsp;sick person who finds the easiest victims. the cowards put a bullet in their own head so they don't have to&nbsp;do life in prison.<br /><br /> i feel for the families of those who were lost and wish them the best of luck.<br /><br /><br />but i also wonder what would have happened if they had security/police with metal detectors at all entrances, if&nbsp;just one of the teachers had a little .25 in their pocket(blah, blah "gun free zone"), or if there was a police officer&nbsp;close enough to hear the shots&nbsp;like there should have been.&nbsp;all of which could have saved many lifes. <br />fire some&nbsp;some staff, quit wasting money on playgrounds and sports&nbsp;and just&nbsp;hire more security.<br />sorry, i may have got off topic but all these shootings in non enforced gun free zones piss me off and i wanted to vent a little. feel free to edit, delete or whatever<br /><br /><br />Katie, i'm going to read that book, thanks.

 

[WanderingRain]

I did my ranting online enough this morning and last night.<br />I wrote on my blog:<br /><br /><div><p style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">My thoughts are with those kids who will never be tucked in at night in their beds. Instead, they will be spending the night at a refrigerated morgue... their bodies cold, lifeless and alone.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">WE are blessed to have life in us... a beating heart and a body that can see nature, breathe the air... enjoy the grass on our feet.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">To all who sleep fitfully tonight, unburdened by sorrows... we are the lucky ones.</p><p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;">It is incumbent upon us to make sure this doesn't happen to more folks.</span><br /><br />Anyway, yeah, a sad, sad day it was yesterday.<br />Such young lives too.&nbsp;<br />All that stuff... that mad stuff is part of this diseased system we all to some extent want to flee when we go off into van living or boondocking. <br />the insanity of the regular world... rat race... social climbing... peer pressure... selfishness...&nbsp;<br /><br />Still, never forget that despite all this, we do live in a world generally much better and more civilized than in years past.&nbsp;<br /><br />I'll be sleeping fitfully tonight.<br />Some of our fellow citizens won't be.<br />My thoughts are with parents who will see empty bedrooms... will never read bedtime stories to those kids again... <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p></div>

 

[Kevin H]

I'm praying for all the victims, adult and children. &nbsp;There are going to be unopened presents for kids and adults in a few days.&nbsp;<br /><br />-- &nbsp;Kevin

 

[mockturtle]

I was listening to Thom Hartman after work on the way home and he went on with a rant about how unequal societies breed these societal problems.<br /><br />The US is the one developed nation with the widest gap between the rich and the poor...and this is a breeding ground for a dysfunctional society... trust and social cohesion is broken down.<br /><br />http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/why/evidence/violence<br /><br />

What a bunch of crap!&nbsp; Both the CT school and Columbine were in upper-middle class neighborhoods and the perpetrators came from well-off homes.&nbsp; To make a class war out of this tragedy is purely political.

 

[Stillwater]

Why does this happen? Two words: mental illness. Grievance collectors, among others.

 

[mockturtle]

I wasn't trying to make it political... but your right... this wasn't the time or place to bring up my second post... <br /><br />I'm just reaching for a solution to societies problem... trying to understand why this happens.<br /><br />

And I apologize for my less-than-diplomatic language. Peace!

 

[Where~the~wind~blows]

with a heavy heart I read the ages of the victims:<br /><br /><span style="color: #808080; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.333333015441895px; line-height: 9.333333015441895px;">USA TODAY ~ The names and ages of the 27 victims of the Newtown, Conn., shootings:</span><br style="color: #808080; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.333333015441895px; line-height: 9.333333015441895px;" /><br style="color: #808080; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.333333015441895px; line-height: 9.333333015441895px;" /><span style="color: #808080; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.333333015441895px; line-height: 9.333333015441895px;">Charlotte Bacon</span><div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; color: #808080; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.333333015441895px; line-height: 9.333333015441895px;">, 6.&nbsp;<br />Daniel Barden, 7.&nbsp;<br />Olivia Engel, 6.&nbsp;<br />Josephine Gay, 7.&nbsp;<br />Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6.&nbsp;<br />Dylan Hockley, 6.&nbsp;<br />Madeleine F. Hsu, 6.&nbsp;<br />Catherine V. Hubbard, 6.&nbsp;<br />Chase Kowalski, 7.&nbsp;<br />Jesse Lewis, 6.&nbsp;<br />James Mattioli, 6.&nbsp;<br />Grace McDonnell, 7.&nbsp;<br />Emilie Parker, 6.&nbsp;<br />Jack Pinto, 6.&nbsp;<br />Noah Pozner, 6.&nbsp;<br />Caroline Previdi, 6.&nbsp;<br />Jessica Rekos, 6.&nbsp;<br />Avielle Richman, 6.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><span style="font-size: 11.333333015441895px; line-height: 9.333333015441895px;">Benjamin Wheeler, 6.&nbsp;</span><br />Allison N. Wyatt, 6.<br /><br />Rachel Davino, 29.&nbsp;<br />Dawn Hochsprung, 47<br />Nancy Lanza, 52<br />Anne Marie Murphy, 52<br />Lauren Rousseau, 30.<br />Mary Sherlach, 56<br />Victoria Soto, 27.&nbsp;<br /><br /></div>

 

[Seraphim]

P_man is correct: mental illness.

And Tank, the schools are already underfunded - where does the money come from? On our local schools, there is controlled access - only one way in. Most buildings have a locked entrance where one has to be buzzed in. But that's really no protection because the secretary has no way of knowing if the person is sane or crazy, armed or not.

We have police officers full time in most of our buildings: SROs and DARE officers who have offices. I was one for several years, but I had five elementary buildings. No way I could cover all at once. Due to budget concessions, there is no elementary school officer now. Retirees are not being replaced, either in the PD or the schools. SROs will soon be pulled to take over emptying road patrol positions.

Even with armed officials at the door and security scanners - which the schools will never be able to afford - it will not be a detriment to a dedicated assault. The armed guards could be eliminated before they knew there was a problem China had a recent incident with a man armed with a knife who stabbed 22 children.

There are sick people in the world who occasionally go over the edge. That won't change. All the controls in the world will not circumvent the possibility or the ability of someone to stage such an attack.

 

[jonsun]

Why would you pray? Either god let it happened or wanted it happen. Do you think you're more wise than your imaginary sky daddy?

 

[Where~the~wind~blows]

Jonsun. God neither wanted nor let it this tragedy happen, We did. We pray not only for the souls lost but for the souls left behind. Praying is a way of support on a spiritual level. I enjoy the stance on faithless persons, it is what has downgraded the morals of much of our society. I will pray for you....

 

[cyndi]

Ssssshhhhh! Hush now! We all grieve differently.&nbsp;<br><br>Just listen<br><br><br><br><br>

 

[Where~the~wind~blows]

That was beautiful Cyndi, I hadn't seen that....thank you!