Picking Up The Pieces After Newtown

We have to do this. We have to figure out what happened and what we can do. It's obvious that we need to do this for the sake of victims, their families and ourselves. I, like others, have watched images and listened to stories coming from my TV. There were times that I couldn't watch anymore and had to turn the TV off. But I returned often, catching up, trying to understand.

One alternative was to try to find the good out there. The things going on that can make you smile, feel good and understand how people support each other everyday. I spent time watching people at a Holiday Party for people at The Arc of Schuyler and their families. A good thing. I watched members of the Watkins/Montour Rotary Club volunteering at that event serving food, making people smile. A good thing. I participated in and watched people pushing back at a meeting with my local Congressman, Tom Reed. Asking about what he was going to do about taxes on the middle class and on the wealthier among us, about health insurance and the environment. All good things. I spent more time looking at young children, the age of the victims in Newtown. Looking at them a little closer and watching how funny and mischievous they can be - to the point of making me and their parents laugh. Good things.

I thought about other good things. First responders in every community ready to be at any kind of event, some serious, some not. I thought about school and non profit administrators who many times are criticized but who think about and prepare for events like Newtown on a regular basis. I thought about Teachers, direct support professionals, counselors and everyone else who works in settings where they make choices every day about making peoples' lives a little better, a little more enjoyable.

There are other things we need to do though. We really have to fix this or at least try. Something has to be done. Children deserve safe places. More guns and armed guards in schools, in my opinion, aren't the answer. It doesn't make sense that it's more difficult to get a job at a non profit or a school then it is to buy an assault weapon. Fingerprinting, background checks, required for hiring, but in some places nothing required for the purchase of destructive weapons. We have to recognize that as nonsense.

Why do people need a gun that can rip through and destroy a locked and secure door? Why do we own guns that are meant for military actions? There are many more questions and they need to be asked and talked about. And finally, mental health support and resources have to be looked at. We have to identify our failures in this area.

If we do this, we'll begin the process of picking up the pieces and hopefully begin the effort to at least try to prevent similar tragedies.