I can't imagine there is anyone, at least in the United States,
who hasn't heard about the shooting of 20 children and six adults at the Stony Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.
I grieve for all of them, especially the little ones whose lives
were snuffed out at such a young age. They were all six and seven years old.
They had not had a chance to really live yet.
How did society fail them? Did we fail them by not having stronger
gun control laws? Did we fail them by not having in place programs to identify
and treat those who might act out and do the unthinkable?
I'm not sure either of these options, if implemented, would stop
such mass shootings. I do have to ask myself if they would, in some measure,
help.
The news accounts also talk about the six adults killed on that
day at the school. No one wants to give voice to the shooter, Adam Lanza, or
his mother, Nancy. No one wants to talk about what tortured souls they must have
been. Adam's mother apparently knew her son was a threat. A man who came
forward to speak about being Adam's babysitter10 years ago, told how the mother
told him to never take his eyes off the child...not for one second, and to
never turn his back on him.
Did the mother try to get her son help? Did she give up? Did she
live in fear of her son? Had she ever tried to have him hospitalized? These are
questions we may never get the answers to. We may never learn the
"why" of what Adam did, in spite of our intense need to know.
Nancy and Adam Lanza deserve our prayers as much (if not more)
than the 26 other souls who lost their lives that day. I ask you to find it in
your heart to pray for ALL the victims of the Newtown shooting.
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