The Sandy Hook Tragedy... My Take

These 15 faces are the faces of the victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  Remember these faces.  Find out the names and remember the names (I  have listed them below).  We, as a society, have spent far too long immortalizing the names and faces of the people who perpetrate the crimes that take innocent lives.  Everyone remembers the names of the two boys responsible for the Columbine massacre on April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado.  Everyone remembers the name of the man who shot up a movie theatre at a midnight showing of the new(ish) Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado.  Everyone remembers the names of the evildoers, but no one remembers the names of the victims.  We have made the perpetrators the stars.  But maybe, just maybe, if we sensationalize the victims, if we show the number of lives lost, and changed forever, someone won't be trying to be the next "Newtown Shooter" or whatever "name" he winds up getting.  You will notice, I did not mention the names of the perpetrators.  I know them.  If I didn't, I could look them up.  But I won't.  I don't want to remember them. I want to remember the victims.

 

Remember the names. 

Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Olivia Engel, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Madeleine Hsu, 6
Catherine Hubbard, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Emilie Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison Wyatt, 6

Rachel Davino, Teacher, 29
Dawn Hochsprung, School Principal, 47
Nancy Lanza, Teacher, Mother of the Shooter, 52
Anne Marie Murphy, Teacher, 52
Lauren Rousseau, Teacher, 30
Mary Sherlach, School Psychologist, 56
Victoria Soto, Teacher, 27

These are the names I want to remember.

And don't blame the victims.  Don't blame the mother of the shooter, regardless of the fact that she died along with the rest of the victims.  It's not her fault she had a son who may or may not have had a mental illness.  Though the likelihood is that he did indeed have some sort of mental illness, I will not say one way or the other because I don't know. I won't listen to the news reports that discuss him at all.

Whether or not he had a mental illness, should he have been held responsible for what he did on Friday, December 14, 2012 in a small, safe town in Connecticut?  Of course.  But this is not a post about gun control, politics or what should be done with a man who broke into a school and shot innocent people.

Let's look for the people who helped.  The teachers who did whatever they could to protect their students - even at the risk (and loss) of their own lives.

Let's look at the teacher, who got her entire classroom into a small bathroom, managed to move a bookcase in front of the door and locked them all inside, telling them she loved them and wanted to keep them safe, hoping her words wouldn't be the last they would hear, but hoping if they were, they would hear words of love.

Let's talk about the heroes of the day.  Let's remember the victims and their legacies.  Let's remember that the shooter's mother was a victim, not a perpetrator.  Let's talk about the important issues.  Let's talk about a society that treats its mentally ill - or rather doesn't treat their mentally ill - until they do something like this.  Unfortunately, more often than not, when they do, they take their own lives.

Let's talk about why people with mental illness aren't able to easily access healthcare.  Why do so many people with mental illness go untreated?  Why is there such a stigma?  It's time to take the stigma away and get help, so we don't have another Sandy Hook or Columbine.

But most importantly, it's time to remember the victims and pray.  Hug your children a little tighter.  Whether your child is your 38 year old daughter or son, or your 9 year old children.  We are all someone's child.   Let's be lights.  Let's show the world love.  Let's let the Sandy Hook families know they don't mourn alone.