Thoughts on recent tragedy

I, along with millions of others, have struggled to understand something that doesn't make any sense after the shootings in Connecticut.  So many things don't make sense on this earth.

We heard about it in our cars and pulled over and cried or said prayers for the families involved.  We saw it on facebook or the news and desperately wanted to reach out and hold those people who had the best parts of their life ripped away from them.  Those of us who are parents of young children couldn't wait until we saw them again and hugged them tightly and for a long time, kids giggling and squirming, but not understanding the emotion.

Many have used this as a political platform to push agendas that don't have anything to do with what really happened, and to me that's sickening.  Who really wants to hear something akin to "I told you so!" when their hearts are hurting and their arms are empty.  My only political statement on the matter is this: 

Gun control is like birth control. It only works if you believe in it and practice it. And even then, sometimes things still slip through.
But no matter what you do, others around you will still be having babies.

Twenty tiny coffins will have to be buried.  Twenty.  That's so much bigger than many of us can imagine.  It makes your mind melt with the evil that something like that took.  My heart goes to the families involved, and the emergency responders that put the needs of a community first, at the same time wondering if their own children were going to walk out of that school.  It's hard to do your job while in tears, but they still did it.

I have hope for the world that my children will inherit when I look at the social media and see more stories about the people involved than the person that did this.  The stories of heroism and bravery outnumber everything else. I've avoided the news because the same isn't true for it.

In honor of the all the bright stars that will be shining in heaven rather than on earth, waiting for their family and friends when they cross that final finish line:

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