It's Been Six Months

6 months ago, an extremely terrible thing happened. I doubt if you have to think very hard about what it was.

At the time, I was completely in shock about it. I posted this entry about it. That was the extent of my reaction at the time.

Over the next few weeks and months, I pondered this. I found out that one of the girls killed was almost exactly the age of my oldest nephew. I got a little scared. I started to wonder about what might happen if some madman or madwoman got it in his or her head that it might just be a great idea to do the same thing in the school my nephews attend. It's really not that difficult to imagine in this day and age.

I also watched as the crazies of the NRA and other right wingnuts worked extremely hard to kill any attempt by the more sensible members of congress (a few still remain, but not many) to make it harder for people like the Newtown shooter to obtain the weapons he used. And I wept.

I weep for the 20 young children who will never grow old.

I weep for the 20 doctors, lawyers, mechanics, librarians, business owners, secretaries, CEOs, film directors, firemen, policemen, waiters or waitresses, bartenders, taxi drivers, or any of the other hundreds of possible careers these kids could have chosen to go into and become contributing members of society in their own ways.

I weep for the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and other future generations that these 20 will now never add to our world.

I weep for the parents, grandparents, and any other relatives of these 20 children. I can not and probably will not ever know what they will have to face from now until the day they die. But it can't be any fun.

But mostly I weep for this country. How can we allow this to happen and not want to do whatever is necessary to stop it?

If you figure out the answer to that question, please let me know.