It's messed with me. I am grief stricken for those families. I am ill thinking about those children's last moments. I'm proud that the teachers and staff tried to shield the children. And most of all I hope and pray this never happens again. I watched the news a lot on Friday and a while on Saturday. Just trying to understand why this happened. My birthday was Saturday and I was not in the mood to really celebrate. It was hard to care that it was my birthday when I thought of those children that would never have another birthday. I've had tension headaches since Friday.
I'm also in Oregon... so the mall shooting earlier last week was also heavy on my mind.
And to top it all off, I have both a 20 year old son and a 9 year old son. These incidents have made me think about the struggles of people in their 20s. Wondering what makes them snap. I feel blessed to have a happy, smart, balanced 20 year old son. But one thing this all makes me aware of is to take all warning signs seriously. In Oregon, the shooter gave many warning signs that were ignored.
My 9 year old son already knew about the mall shooting in Oregon. It's a mall we've been to countless times and he isn't eager to go back. I'm an online shopper for the most part, so I have no immediate plans to head there anytime soon anyway.
Then with the school shooting... I wasn't sure if I'd tell him. However, he came home on Friday from school already knowing a little about it. The teachers all had told the kids that some kids were hurt at a school and that they would get an extra long recess in memory of the children. I ended up telling him a little about it and we talked about the right way to handle things if you are upset and that guns don't solve the problem. He also saw the President's speech last night. Logan seems to be okay. I doubt he'll think about it until we go to the mall. I don't watch the news about it with him around. I try to not desensitize my child with violent video games, movies too old for him, or the news in it's unfiltered horror.
My mind keeps going back to those children. Those parents struggling with grief. And the families of the adult victims. The sadness is crushing.
|