There are no words adequate to describe the horror of today’s school shooting in Connecticut. So many young lives, cut short before they’d had time to even begin to understand them, let alone live them to the full . . . I have no idea how to begin to describe the depths of this tragedy.
However, there are three things for which there are words.
First – for those who have lost loved ones. No-one except those who’ve been there can possibly understand what you’re enduring right now. Those who try to express their sympathy must inevitably fall short, because no sympathy can even come close to the magnitude of your pain and suffering. I can only offer my tears, and my prayers, and stand silently with you.
Next – for those in the blogosphere and in social media who write and speak of this tragedy. Please, please don’t mention the shooter’s name, or give any acknowledgment whatsoever to him and/or any accomplices (first reports indicated that there may have been more than one perpetrator, but I’ve seen no confirmation as yet). Don’t be like the news outlets that are already seeking profit out of ‘hyping’ the horror of this situation. There’s too much pain and suffering here to allow anyone to profit from it, directly or indirectly, monetarily or otherwise. Let’s keep our focus on the dead, the survivors, and their families. The last thing we should do is glorify the monster(s) who did this.
Finally – for those who are already seeking, and will continue to seek, to exploit this tragedy for their political and/or partisan ends, just as every tragedy of this nature has been exploited by those with an agenda. People like you will wade through blood to make your point . . . just as long as it’s someone else’s blood. You’ll do so without regard for the misery and anguish you add to the already unimaginable burden of those who’ve lost loved ones. For you, I have nothing but contempt, disgust and scorn.
May the souls of those who died in Connecticut today rest in peace. May their families receive what succor, sympathy and help is possible, Divine and human. May the rest of us gather around and mourn with them. Nothing else is appropriate today.
Peter
Very well stated.
I agree with your words and would like to add one thing if I may. Please replace the word shooter with murderer. It is a more accurate description.
The behavior of the media is disgusting. Talk about dancing in the victim's blood…
The Forensic Psychiatrist Dr Park Dietz has said "saturation-level news coverage of mass murder causes, on average, one more mass murder in the next two weeks".
The major news media know exactly how to ameliorate this effect, but instead we are still hearing new details about the biography of the Clackamas Town Center mall doofus, along with a brand new biographical profile of the CT doofus by David Halbfinger to appear in tomorrows New York Times. It is almost as if they want another spree to happen because that will raise their circulation…
Peter,
Well said. Like all good people, I am broken-hearted this morning after the bloodbath in Connecticut. And I know my sadness is trivial compared to the families of the victims. Matching my sadness in degree is my contempt for the politicians and media people jumping to uninformed conclusions and inflaming passions before the blood is even dry. God have mercy on them, for I feel none. May the innocent souls rest in peace and their survivors find solace somehow.
Leatherneck
The savage part of me wants to see these…animals… un-personed. To see their names effaced from the public records, their writings and social media post expunged, and if one was captured alive, tried in-camera and sentenced anonymously.