Sadness, from every little town in America…

I don’t know about you but the last few days it’s been hard to know what to focus my attention on. The “unspeakable horror” that transpired on Friday is almost too much to digest, and at the same time it is hard to feel grateful for what you have when the world feels so warped. I was in a car driving across Idaho and through the Tetons with Luke, en route to a hockey tournament, when I first heard what had happened. I spent the next hours in the car listening to NPR, tears streaming, afraid to hear more, but unable to bring myself to switch back to the Christmas music I had previously been enjoying. I didn’t want to know the gory details, but at the same time, it felt irresponsible and disrespectful not to listen. I also had an eleven year old in the car–tuning into much more than I should have let him.

We were driving through small towns like Idaho Falls and Driggs, WY where, ironically as we listened, we saw dozens of signs for “Max’s Gun Shop,”  “Precision Firearms,” “Steel Guns & Pawn.” Beyond this was what you find in every small town in America-kids walking dogs, people heading home from work and, this weekend, town flags flying at half-mast.  Everywhere parents commiserated, speaking in hushed tones about their heartbreak—over what had happened to families just like ours, for those sweet innocent children, and for our own children, who, today at school will see increased security measures in place and hear details which will replace what’s little of their innocence with fear.

I’m afraid too. I’m afraid there is good reason we are seeing more and more of these random acts of violence. There are 270 million handguns in circulation in America. Mental illness is on the rise, particularly amongst our youth.  If we are lucky enough not to be dealing with the challenges of raising a child struggling with Autism,  Aspergers, extreme ADHD, we certainly know these kids-they’re neighbors, cousins, classmates. And then there’s the violence: The movies, video games, music, that is desensitizing a generation, not to mention the alienation and disconnect that comes with our increasingly technological society. It’s a perfect storm that we are watching unfold, and if Friday showed us one thing, it’s that we are all in the middle of it.

A lot of things have to happen-we need to address so many issues.  Better gun control,  particularly for semi-automatic weapons, can help. Please sign your name to the following effort. I understand the guns may not cause the violence, but they certainly enable its magnitude.  http://signon.org/sign/gun-control-now-1?source=s.em.mt&r_by=6509134

It’ll be a balancing act this week to be present to all the celebrations of the season while we try to digest such sadness…