I Hear America Weeping: Bury My Heart at Sandy Hook

With visions and the reality of super storm Sandy still haunting the Northeast, we now are faced with another all too real nightmare : the mass slayings at Sandy Hook Elementary school.

Life deals in metaphors and the name Sandy stood out in my mind.   I took a moment to look up what the name Sandy means, and I was surprised to learn that it means: the defender of man and the protector of mankind.

What is the message from above?
Who is the protector of mankind? 

As the friends and families of the those slain at Newtown grieve,
So does an entire nation mourn, and so grieves the heaven, and mother earth, as well.

At a time of good will toward men, and the celebration of the Festival of lights; in a season of the birth of a savior, our children should have sweet visions of sugarplums dance through their heads, and not rancid visions of a crazed,lone, gunman run through their heads.

In the long, cold, dark days to follow, the innocent children and the caretakers sacrificed trying to save them, will all be laid to rest forevermore.  But among the living, the pain and the suffering will long endure.

Even through the pain, we can't help but mourn for a mother gunned down by the child she conceived, bore, loved, and raised.  And in our hearts, we must find a way to forgive Adam Lanza.  We can eventually forgive the boy/man, but not his actions.  His actions are unfathomable and unforgivable.  For any parent, for any thinking, feeling person, all these visions, all these horrible truths,will bring us, just as super storm Sandy did, collectively, to our knees. 

What happened in Connecticut was a tragedy of epic proportions. God knows that this mass murder isn't the first of its kind, and sadly, it won't be the last, unless we as a nation and as a people get our heads out of the sand.

As we walk through the bloody alleyways of our hearts and souls, and watch the new stories of those who were senselessly slaughtered and those who managed to survive, we must ask -- why this? Why this now?

There will be more questions than answers.
More tears shed than any of us can bear.

We need more than flags waving at half-staff, and much more than moments of silence.

America we can start by boycotting our entertainment industry. Silence the violence that streams through your homes hourly on your big screens.
Monitor the music your children listen to on their head phones, which glorifies drugs and violence; and for the good of all, put your money where your mouth is and stop buying your children violent video games.

The horrid sounds of screams blaring over a school intercom, and the curses of a young madman, will long echo throughout our classrooms, and the sight of blood and carnage will forever haunt all of us, for as long as we shall walk this earth. 

We are a nation and a world that is failing our children and ultimately all of humankind.
If we continue to blindly defend our right to bear arms, then I hope we are strong enough to bear the burden of that right, and that we find the strength to carry out the dead and dying...

In the small, Thorton Wilder-like town of Newtown, a town whose motto is,"Nicer in Newtown," this holiday season there will be many presents that were bought that will never be opened...

In memory of those so mercilessly slain, this year, before you give your children the gifts you've purchased --  think carefully. Do these gifts show you to be the protector of humankind? Or are they more instruments of destruction?

I pray that we do not lose our faith in God and in the good powers of the universe. for they are more powerful than any evil, but God has no power to interfere with free will and stop what humankind, itself, must put an end to.

We are the protectors of man, you and I.
May the tiny dead and the giants who lost their lives trying to save these children, sleep in heavenly peace.

May they guide us toward true peace on earth.