Most of them would be in high school.
They should have had their first dates, first crushes, first loves.
Some of them should still be in the classroom doing the profession they loved.
And at least one should still simply be a mother.
But because of the actions of a deeply disturbed young man, 26 people died ten years ago today at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Six were adults who worked at the schools: the principal, teachers, and teacher assistants. A seventh adult, the mother of the shooter (I will not name the shooter; he killed himself at the school), died at home, the first victim of the massacre.
The other twenty were first-graders.
Let that sink in.
First-graders, with single digits showing their ages.
What can I say that hasn't already been said about Sandy Hook?
It remains the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school.
When you say "Sandy Hook" and "Columbine", people know immediately what you are talking about, and it is not simply a place name. They are names with horrible connotations of blood, of murder, of screaming parents and other adults, of first responders who probably still suffer from nightmares and other symptoms of PTSD.
And as if the Sandy Hook parents weren't suffering enough, they had to endure the outrageous claims that "Sandy Hook was a hoax." When I was on the hunt for a conservative alternative to Facebook, I was part of such a group and when I mentioned Sandy Hook, the person said, "No one died at Sandy Hook. Show me proof that people died at Sandy Hook."
I will not name the person that spent the most time tormenting the Sandy Hook families, except to say that every cent this person has should be divided among the families that lost loved ones.
Seven adults and twenty children died a decade ago.
Ten years later, nothing has changed.
Instead, we are society that has grown numb to mass shootings. Our ice thaws a bit when we hear about a school shooting. We scream our outrage, we offer our thoughts and prayers, we demand changes to gun laws . . . and then all the feelings die down until the next mass shooting. Lather, rinse, repeat.
What can I say that hasn't been said? Rachel still weeps for her children and cannot be comforted (see Jeremiah 31:15).
What solutions can I offer that have not been offered?
Like a friend of mine said after yet another mass shooting, "I'm out of ideas."
The only thing I know to do is remember the victims:
Nancy Lanza
Rachel D'Avino
Dawn Hochsprung
Anne Marie Murphy
Lauren Rousseau
Mary Sherlach
Victoria Leigh Soto
Charlotte Bacon
Daniel Barden
Olivia Engle
Josephine Gay
Dylan Hockley
Madeleine Hsu
Catherine Hubbard
Chase Kowalsky
Jesse Lewis
Ana Marquez-Greene
James Mattioli
Grace McDonnell
Emilie Parker
Jack Pinto
Noah Pozner
Caroline Previdi
Jessica Rekos
Avielle Richman
Benjamin Wheeler
Allison Wyatt
In memoriam, December 14, 2012.
May their memory be a blessing.
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.
