I don’t have any words to motivate today. None to inspire. And I don’t know how to make you laugh. The killing of 20 first-graders and six school workers in Newtown, CT has left me a little dry. Newtown is about 25 minutes from my hometown in CT. My sister works in a school a mile away from the shootings. I have a friend who lives down the street. Another friend owns a nearby CrossFit affiliate — she opened her doors on Sunday so her members could grieve and talk with a counselor. Their community will never be the same.
I spent most of the weekend hanging out with my boys in CA and trying not to cry, trying to answer their questions about why we allow our citizens to buy assault rifles, and why we don’t seem to really care about mental health problems. I had a lot of words, but I don’t think I had any real answers. Mostly, I came to believe that we have failed as a society. We failed as parents. And we failed as citizens.
The only lesson that’s crystal clear out of this tragedy is this: good people must act.
The principal and the teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School knew that: they acted. Some of them paid with their lives. Now, it’s time for the parents in America to decide what kind of country we are leaving to our children. Good people must act.
