An uninspiring title for a blog post, but this is the question that has been plaguing me since the horrendous massacre in Texas.
I’m at a loss for words. What can someone say or do to comfort the broken hearts of those parents or erase the trauma the surviving students and staff members have suffered. Nor can we ignore the agony of the shooter’s family members. Yes, indeed, there should be a full investigation of the police response.
It was never my intent to use this blog to post commentary on current events. It seems though, that from its humble beginnings during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been one crisis or another splashed across our media. I sometimes ask myself, particularly in the case of mass shootings, if the prolonged sensational news coverage could be an inciting factor.
I could try to push all of this down and write about something entirely different. I try and I usually do. Life goes on, doesn’t it, like the weekly advertising flyers that land in our mailbox. Need a new patio set? How about some new windows? Am I the only one not seeing the color of normal right now?
Lately, every time I sit down at my keyboard to gather my thoughts, it seems to take more and more effort to work my way up through the layers, to come to the surface.
At the time of the Sandy Hook shooting, I was working at a local high school. The then-principal’s secretary was a woman of similar age, also a grandmother. When she heard the news about the innocent children that were killed 3,000 miles away, she was inconsolable. The horror in Uvalde, Texas this past week took me right back to that moment and her anguish.
So, when I lapse into a post that reflects my own discouragement and wonder at what we’ve become and what kind of world we are leaving our grandchildren, I hope you’ll bear with me.
Brenda Bellinger 