What Have We Become?

In this spot, I normally write about college football...That won't be happening this week...Friday, 12-14-12, I had planned on writing a little piece on my daughter Molly...It was her second birthday, and I had all this great stuff to say about her...But after hearing what happened at Sandy Hook School Friday, I just wanted to get to my kids, and just be with them...

Work was crazy, busy last week, and this week will be more of the same...I didn't find out what had happened until 2:30 PM...That was the first chance I had to catch my breath and take a look at my phone...My wife texted me the little she knew...When I left work an hour later I was getting more details from the radio...I was sick to my stomach...I got the kids...We went home, ordered pizza and waited for mom to get home...We didn't talk about what happened for awhile...I just wanted us all to be...

I'll be honest, the news put me in a pretty dark place...I had the feeling that maybe all this talk of the world ending next week was for a reason...Maybe the world is sick of us humans...Maybe we don't deserve it...Within a week, two mass shootings...Let alone the non-stop violence that goes every day, that we don't hear about on the news...We've just excepted that their is going to be another shooting on the Chicago streets tonight...Oh, and a guy slashed 22 kids in China with a knife the same day...Maybe the world deserves better...

Then as my wife and I, and our oldest daughter watched the news, my wife in tears...Me holding them back...I was saddened more, when my daughter was able to talk about it all so calmly...She is a smart, sweet, sensitive kid...And when things bother her, she'll talk them out...I realized her entire life has been in a time where there has been 24 hour, non-stop coverage, instant everything, and a time when mass shootings have become a common occurrence...My God, are our children becoming desensitized to awful shit like this?

This shooting has really thrown me for a loop...20 kids...6 and 7 year olds...Gunned down....Why? What could drive anyone to do such a thing? I just can't wrap my head around it...I'm not a super religious person, but if there is such a place as Heaven...These 20 little kids, and the 6 adults who died trying to save them, and who save many others, deserve to be in such a place...

And since I brought up religion, I'd like to take issue with the people online, and in the media, who have made comments such as 'This happened because prayer/God was taken out of schools.' We are a nation of many faiths...Not just yours...Public Schools are not the place for religion...You want your kids to get religion/God in school, do what we did...Knuckle up and pay for Private/Catholic school...Don't give me crap about it costing too much...If my broke ass can do it, you can...You know where I started?  I sold my most valuable guitars...We made sacrifices...That's what you do when you care about something, or you feel important...

I've also seen and heard many people complaining about pundits talking about gun control, and gun owners' rights...Yes, I'm sick of pundits talking...I want to see some real leaders talking, and debating...Yes, actually debating...That would be nice...People say it's too soon to bring this debate up...2 mass shootings in 1 week...2 small communities, that never thought it would happen there...20, six and seven year olds gunned down but some fuck-stain...This is exactly the time for a real debate to happen....Why is the First Amendment attacked so harshly by those defending the Second Amendment?  I don't know what the answer is...I don't know if we can fix the problem...But I know it needs to be talked about...Ideas need to be shared...Days like 12/14/12 need to never happen again...

Charlotte Bacon, 6;
Daniel Barden, 7;
Rachel Davino, 29;
Olivia Engel, 6;
Josephine Gay, 7;
Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6;
Dylan Hockley, 6;
Dawn Hocksprung, 47;
Madeline F. Hsu, 6;
Catherine V Hubbard, 6;
Chase Kowalski, 7;
Jesse Lewis, 6;
James Mattioli, 6;
Grace McDonnell, 7;
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Emile Parker, 6;
Jack Pinto, 6;
Noah Pozner, 6;
Caroline Previdi, 6;
Jessica Rekos, 6;
Avielle Richman, 6;
Lauren Russeau, 30;
Mary Sherlach, 56;
Victoria Soto, 27;
Benjamin Wheeler, 6;
Allison N. Wyatt, 6

If there is a Heaven...It is far too crowded after Friday...






The Beeze.