No words: Connecticut parents' tragedy puts other issues into focus
There is nothing that we can write to make you feel any better after hearing that 26 people -- 20 of them children -- lost their lives in a Connecticut school Friday.
We know because we have stopped and started a dozen times. We don't understand it -- or have the words to explain it -- any more than you do.
We don't know why someone would make the choice to commit such an unspeakable act -- or what the exact plan was that would have prevented it.
We don't know what to say to the families who will be planning funerals instead of Christmas celebrations. We don't know how to make a town of people whose hearts are broken feel anything but the grief that must be overwhelming them.
Our hearts are broken, too.
We don't know how to make sense of the lives lost before they had the chance to blossom or to explain why this had to happen, right now, at Christmas, a time of love, compassion and hope.
We don't have the right words, the magic phrase, the explanation.
No one does.
But what we know is that this is a chance for all of us to step back and to think about what really matters.
It is a time to set aside petty political bickering and power grabs. It is no time for grandstanding or selfish acts.
It is a time to hold our families close and to remember just how lucky we are to have them.
It is a chance to remind ourselves that Christmas is about peace, love, compassion and family -- not about big screen TVs and the latest, greatest must-have toy.
It is a chance to remember that prayer -- in any form -- is our chance to look for meaning when it seems as though life is meaningless, and that faith makes us all stronger.
It is a time to step back, to re-evaluate and to take care of each other.
It is not easy to watch the news unfold in Connecticut. It is hard for us, too.
And we join you in sending our thoughts, prayers and condolences to those who lost so much so quickly.
For now, aside from remembering and hugging our children, setting aside family squabbles that have separated us and being there for those in need, our friends and our families, that is all we can do.
Published in Editorials on December 15, 2012 11:12 PM