Newtown CT

It's happened again.  Someone for what ever twisted reason decides to go and take innocent lives for something that they feel completely justified in doing so.  And young lives for that matter.

Whether it's purely hate driven or insanity of some sort, an individual has once again driven a lightening rod of absolute fear and despair into every one of us.  Proving that we are not completely safe in any place we are, and the next lost soul could be sitting right next to any one of us.  My apologies for the gloom and doom but am I not right?

What does a person capable of things like this really look like?  We can racially and socially profile all day and we'd most likely be totally wrong.  This shooter apparently was somewhat of a role model kid with good grades and what appeared to be a decent upbringing.  What in God's name possessed him to do something like this to a member of his own family and all those children?  We may never really know.

But this school shooting today has really got me upset.  More so than the Columbine shooting or the Aurora Theater slayings.  And I hate to sound so calloused when I make this remark but I don't know why.  Especially when it seems like every time you turn around something like this is happening in our society.

My heart goes out to the families involved, the staff at the school, and the first responders who had to arrive on scene to all of this chaos.  But most of all I just can't stop thinking about the parents who have lost children today.  And for what?

Tragedy never has a better time to present itself.  It always arrives unannounced and when you least expect it.  Very seldom do we see it coming and brace ourselves for it.  It lives by its own schedule and comes and goes as it pleases.

But with Christmas being right around the corner it makes this all that much more disheartening.  In many households this year, and probably close to forever now, the holidays may never bring the joy they once knew.

So here I am faced with the question as to why this is affecting me so profoundly today.  Is it because it's that time of the season?  Or is it the fact that I've had my share of seeing how people react when you tell them a loved one has died.  And I know plenty of them have just had that talk or are about to.

It's hard to imagine what they all must be going through.  And I pray to God that I never have to.