A fearful world for our children

This is not what I wanted to be writing about but as I sat there holding my squirming baby a little longer, I thought about all the parents that wouldn't get to hold their children anymore my heart started breaking all over again. As a teacher and especially as a parent, it is so hard to process something so unbelievably tragic as what happened at Newtown. We all wonder how this could happen, why it happens, what can we do to keep it from happening again? We want to blame guns or policy or whatever sound thing we can point a finger at, but at the end of the day after a rough day in a profession that exposes me to so many harsh realities of so many people's lives out there, the conclusion I came to was that there's so many broken people out there. Broken people that never got the help they should have that then choose to retailate against the world.

We all want schools or government to fix this and fix that when really we need to look within ourselves to fix the problems. Weapons don't kill people. People kill people. Love is the biggest gift of all, but it amazes me how many people feel unloved or go through life without anyone caring enough to notice their mental instability. Why is it so hard to give love? Why do we want to hurt one another? Why are we so broken that we can't love one another? That mothers and fathers don't love their children. I don't know the story behind this murderer but obviously he didn't feel any love or compassion in his heart. Why? I don't know. But I know what I've seen through a decade of working with America's youth. There are way too many children that go through life feeling unloved, unwanted, and when their mental health starts to deteriate no one cares enough to get them the help they need. What kind of adults do you think those children become? Some overcome this yes but some turn into the monsters we see in the news headlines.

This lack of love is what results in so many tragedies that occur in our society EVERYDAY in so many different ways. Know your family, know where they're at, know how they feel, talk about those feelings, help them, get them the resources they need, and for the love of God love them. Love is said to be the greatest gift of all and just as I believe in God, I believe in the power of love. Unconditional love. We need to rebuild a world of love not of hate.

This is a reaction to another tragedy in our society as well as a reflection to the sadness I see in my job and hear through others' similiar occupations in public servitude. I don't know the facts, I don't know his reasoning, but it just leaves me asking the question again of why is it easier for some to hate rather than love? Why is easier to hurt than mend? What creates that kind of mental state that we hate so much we want to bring pain upon another person?