I learned of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School today as many of my fellow Americans did. Just through the door from a toddler gym class with my daughter, I scrolled through my Facebook feed to see a flood of posts like this:
“Deeply saddened and shocked. I have no words.”
“Heartbroken.”
“My heart goes out to the families.”
Nearly my entire feed – filled with friends and contacts from around the world – was posting about the same event.
Several years ago, I might have been confused but this isn’t the first horrible event I’ve learned about in this way. Like many of us, I’ve become somewhat accustomed to hearing such news first through social networking venues. I respond by immediately checking trusted news sources or calling a loved one. Social media has a unique way of bringing us back to so many original habits and behaviors.
As the day progressed, the steady flow of Sandy Hook statuses continued. Most statuses focused on the sheer sadness, grief, and immeasurable loss associated with losing so many precious lives.
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You articulate so well what I felt was an odd comfort in reading my facebook and twitter feeds yesterday and today. Now I can remove the ‘odd’ and just allow the comfort. Thank you.
Thank you Elvira-I know what you mean. I think there’s a tendency to feel that it’s no ok for social media to offer such social support or comfort….It’s not ever to say that it should replace in-person support but I truly believe it can be used positively just as we’ve unfortunately seen so many times the negative. Thank you for your feedback.
So many around the world are grieving and bewildered as to how can someone perform such a heinous act as in Sandy Hook, Ct. I share the deep grief and sadness …. And in processing the events, I am determined to watchfully observe what good will come of this.
Bottom line – it is mental illness left untreated, unsupervised, trivialized and minimized in my humble opinion. People and parents observe feelings and behaviors in their children as a result of certain traumas or events happening in their lives. Due to the desire and hopes that the kids will get thru it there is lots of denial, trivializing and the lack of quality counseling.
Not enough attention is given to the affects of the horrible video games allowed in so many homes of absorbing young brains. Violence is not a game. When real people are “killed” they cannot be reset to get up and try again.
Guns are not the biggest issue and if the politics of society concentrate there for the bulk of a solution, they will find – at the expense of many more situations and lives- they need to look at the human factor FIRST. And start to deal with forming a support system to deal with the many factors causing the aggression, anger and “get-even” attitude.
And yes, I do agree we need to add more spirituality and moral teachings especially to formative minds.