Sad memory: A week later -- still sorrow

It seems hard to believe that it was just one week ago that 26 people lost their lives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

What is even harder to comprehend is that this latest tragedy comes on the heels of the Aurora, Colo., mass shooting as well as several others over the past few years.

After each one, we -- and legislators -- vowed that we would do everything we could to make sure it never happened again.

But, unfortunately, it did.

The reason the sadness is sticking with us so long this time is obvious -- these were 20 young lives stopped before they were even started. Who knows whom we lost that day -- a future star, a future scientist or, perhaps, a president.

And the adults who died along with them, some of whom were barely adults themselves, did not hesitate to think about their own safety as they struggled to save as many lives as possible by giving their own.

Those are the kind of thoughts that make today particularly hard.

There will be lots of talk about how to fix this problem in our country -- and lots of ideas.

But the first step doesn't include speeches.

It requires simply remembering.

And that is what this nation did today.

Published in Editorials on December 21, 2012 1:56 PM