My Response to the Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary

This picture was taken from a facebook site honoring the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary

This is not my original artwork

To the Parents and Families of the Victims at Sandy Hook Elementary,

    Our hearts break with yours at the tragedy that has happened.  When we look at all of these faces we see our children and their friends, we see our Sisters-in-law and friends who are teachers and administration in schools, we see our family and friends who are training to be teachers, our relatives who are retired teachers, we see good people, not perfect people, but good people who did not deserve to go through what they went through.  While I personally have never met any of the victims of this tragedy, I feel very real pain and I know all of America weeps with me.  I look at these faces and I see promise of a future, I see truly happy people, young and old who made this world a better place.

  A cloud of sadness has overshadowed everything that has happened in our lives since the tragedy occurred on Friday morning.  It is all so senseless and no sane person can make any sense of what happened.  We love a little stronger now, hold our kids a little tighter now, Thank our children's teachers a little more often, even hug them because we know if they were faced with the same situation, they would be the ones protecting our children.  Every parent in America can put themselves in the shoes of the parents of these children, our hearts ache for you and your loss, no parent should ever have to go through what you went through, no parent should have to feel that pain.  In no way to we know exactly how the parents feel right now, mourning the loss of their young children, but when we think about it, we cry, we sob, we pray.

 I have seen the post from the mother of a child with a mental illness and she brings about a good point, in America we have to find a better way to help those with mental illnesses.  Prisons are not a good place to help someone with a mental illness, usually being imprisoned is more likely to trigger mental illness or make it worse.  The mental institutions do their best, but with so many people requiring attention for mental illness, there are limited resources.  Many times those with mental illness wind up being ignored or drugged up to the point of being extremely lethargic.

  With all the articles out regarding the gunman and the victims, no sense can be made of what happened.  There is no aha moment, it is a completely senseless crime.  All we know is that no person in their right mind could intentionally kill these extremely young children and the people who care about them enough to sacrifice their lives for them.

In the end we have more questions than we do answers and our hearts continue to break for these children, teachers, administration, the survivors, their families and friends.  We can only begin to imagine what it is you are all going through.  Just know that while it may not mean much to some, the thoughts and prayers of the majority of America are with you as you go through this horrible time.