Good People
Jack Johnson

 

 

 

It has been a strange couple of days.  I find myself trying to reconcile the events in Sandy Hook and I can't.  It isn't because I can't decide what I think.  It is because I can't think about it long enough to piece together a coherent string of events to ponder what it means.  I haven't even mustered up a good dose of hatred for ... him.  The only thing I can really process is this is complicated and too important to be a sound bite of opinion on social commentary.  These lives, all 28 of them, deserve better.

 

I cut myself off from news sources Friday evening.  I allowed myself about 40 minutes today to read online articles.  That included the minutes I needed between articles to turn my mind off and not think any further than the article stated. 

 

My prayers are that we ask hard questions of ourselves; that we do what is right.  The lives lost should not be in vain.  Everything should be on the table of public discourse.  EVERYTHING!  Better gun laws, better enforcement or both.  I don't know the answer, but I sure the hell don't want the NRA at this table.  We can't cheapen this conversation with lobbyist.  Mental Health Issues and treatment are welcome to the table as are the needs of the disabled, the Autistic and those that are bullied or troubled.  While we are at it lets bring the sensational news shows under the light of inspection.  "How did that make you feel" they asked.  It made me feel cheap and ashamed to watch you do this at tragedy after tragedy, on station after station, year after year.  You will broadcast anything, print anything that will get you a second's notice.  So far the only hate I feel is towards the messenger.  What about the teachers and staff?  God this is what it takes to get a little respect for the endless duty teachers are charged with everyday?  They do a million things besides teach.  More than one staff member did what was right.  A 5' 2 woman charged a man with a semi-automatic rifle.  How awesome a daughter someone raised. 

 

I can't even begin to mourn for the children.  I am lost in the many ways we will fail them.  I can't find the faith that we will get past our polarizations long enough to listen, compromise and fix what we can. I have lost my faith in our process, our dialogue, our being the greatest nation on Earth.  We are a soundbite society, in a headline world.  Walter Cronkrite where have you gone?

 

 

 

"Where did all the good people go.  We got heaps and heaps of what we sowed".