Humanity

A terrible thing happened a few weeks ago that made a small town elementary school a household name.  I was not able to find the words to talk about it then.  Like most of our nation, I was profoundly affected.  As a parent, possibly more so.  I can't bear to think of my sweet boy facing a shooter in elementary school.  I was so angry at all of the nuts who came out of the woodwork to promote, of all things, more guns.  Because it's obvious to me from where I live now that the only solution is total gun control.  I never have to worry about my family facing gunfire while shopping, while in a movie theater, at a political rally, or, for the love of god, in school, until we go back to the United States.  No amount of rhetoric can obscure the fact that this kind of thing happens all the time in the US, and does not happen in South Korea, Britain, Japan, and all of the other countries who have come to their senses about firearms.

As with gay marriage, I am sure that our country will eventually come to realize the folly of our current policy.  I hope that this happens before too many more innocents die.

As for the emotional aftermath, I have learned that there are two ways to view the world.  You can concentrate on the shooter, the gun nuts, and the internet trolls, or you can look at the way volunteers remodeled a middle school in three weeks, raising the bathroom floors, repainting the walls, and salvaging furniture from the old school to try and bring the students a modicum of stability while they deal with the tragedy.  You can concentrate on Wall Street and the growing gap between rich and poor in America, or you can look at the volunteers for Occupy Sandy, who have worked tirelessly to provide relief to disaster victims.  You can share the youtube video of the teens tormenting the poor bus monitor, or read about how people donated $700,000 to the woman, who was able to quit her job and start a nonprofit combatting bullying.  The few can be baffling, infuriating, and, in the case of Adam Lanza, incomprehensible.  But the many show that humans can show great, well, humanity.

My husband is one of the former types.  I am one of the latter.  I hope to raise my son to think like me.  If you believe that people can do great things, you are far more likely to do them yourself.  In this global era, we can see the best and worst of humanity with a simple click.  I hope that my son will join the best to alleviate the affects of the worst, and will do it with an earnest heart.