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After 9/11 The Onion published a piece that was one of the best things I have ever read. It was raw, it was profane, it was angry and it grieved. Not to kill each other seems like the simplest to honor of the human contracts and yet over and over and [infinitum] we fail ourselves and each other. It is agonizing. An elementary school - an elementary school is terrorized, bloodied; in that moment, wherever we live, whoever we are, we gasp with the pain of it and the whole world stops.

Comments

[Sarah Wynde]

I kept wondering, what are they going to do with the Christmas presents? I mean, the organized parents. The ones who are done with their shopping. What do you do with those presents?

Did you read The Onion's article today? I laughed out loud. And then I felt horrible for having laughed. And yet...it was so perfect. http://www.theonion.com/articles/fuck-everything-nation-reports,30743/

All 315 million Americans confirmed. This is no way to live.

[Kara]

So well said, Julia. All we can do is cry together.

[Alexicographer]

Amen.

[Kristen]

Absolutely. The whole world stops.
Hug your little ones as tight as you can tonight.
There are no words for this atrocity.

[Sandi]

This is one of the most profound things I have read all day. Thank you.
I am just so very, very sad.

[H]

I keep wondering the same thing about those families and Christmas. I keep thinking about how they can't see the bodies, won't be able to for days, and how that would destroy me if it was my child. And I keep wondering why we can't even talk about tighter gun controls without being shouted down by the NRA. This isn't the time to talk about gun control? I have to wonder - if not now, then when?

I actually thought today, "can we go back to being a British colony now?" I'm liking the no-handgun rule right about now...

[Pat]

No we can and we must do more than cry together. As with so many of us tonight I am in tears about those babies in Newtown and the adults who died with them or trying to protect them, I know we are sending our thoughts, prayers and, well in my case, food. But that is not enough-- that will NOT stop this from happening again.

As we mourn those poor babies in Newtown; along with taking our own political action, considering adding to your emails, 'Please send your senators, representative and President Obama a note that says that if they fight for gun control, you will have their backs."

We are all so sad but along with good thoughts and prayers we have to make a commitment that we will make it harder for this to happen again and that means gun control.

[Jenni]

Was it this, maybe?
It's what I thought of today.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/god-angrily-clarifies-dont-kill-rule,222/

[Beth]

Beautifully put. Thank you.

[kristi]

thank you , julia.

[ailo]

Thank you.

[Laurie A]

For me it was the Christmas cards. How many sent Christmas cards with happy pictures of their children from the past year? Friends and relatives either just received them or may receive them over the next couple of days. Grief overcomes me. It's time to have the gun conversation. Now. Then we can talk about parents limiting their kids access to these uber violent video games as well.

[L.]

I'm filled with grief and sorrow and dread in this deeply personal way but I'm also filled with anger. Like a couple others said, if we can't talk about gun control now, when? I am so, so angry that our nation has been held hostage by people who hide behind supposedly apple-pie values to justify access to firepower that no one needs. So many little kids, JUST like my five-year-old who goes to kindergarten every day, died yesterday, in terror and gore and pain, so that people who call themselves adults could cling to ridiculous access to ridiculous weaponry.

If you think you're going to need to lead an armed insurrection against the U.S. government any time soon, fine, let's get that out there and be honest about it and determine what that means for our nation. There's NO other reason to have access to the kind of firepower that we do, with this level of freedom. Otherwise, we need to radically reform our gun control laws. Now.

[Jenna]

Every year at this time my Dad toasts to Peace. Every year, we pray it is the last year he has to make that toast. I can't even imagine. All I can do is pray for peace for anyone dealing with this. I don't think understanding will ever come.

[Nancy]

And the media are like jackals - seems like in an awful way, it elevates events that spur on other psychotic people.

[QoB]

Or this one: http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-celebrates-full-week-without-deadly-mass-sh,29293/

Very glad I am from one country and live in another where guns are controlled the way they are.

[Heidi]

Very well expressed...

Daring Young Mom has an excellent post on it here: http://www.daringyoungmom.com/2012/12/14/light/

[omdog]

Tbank you.

[llcsis]

Thank you Julia, well said. That was an excellent post to read Heidi - helps with that feeling of agonizing futility.

[Cait]

I don't have any words.

[Trina]

I don't know if it's completely legal, but I copied and pasted this in my status on Facebook. I did reference you and the blog as the writer. I have been reading your blog for some time and this one gave me instant chills. Thank you for taking a moment to post it.

[Rachel]

As a preschool teacher, not yet parent I am at a loss for words on this one. I think about the teachers yesterday who walked into school and laid down their lives for the kids in their classes and then I think about each of the kids in my class and somehow I know without a doubt that I would jump in front of a gun for any one of them, and there's a peace in that knowledge but there's a terror in it too... because once you've taken that bullet, then what? There's no one left to protect after that. I mean, it's no secret my kiddos drive me crazy, they bite my last nerve almost daily, and yet at the end of the day I love them all intensely and I hope that parents know that teachers feel that kind of love for their kids.

And then, I think of the REAL parents. I can't imagine the pain. The pain of not ever getting to hold your child again. The pain getting the call and of witnessing all around you the happy reunions and then of NOT getting the relief of your child running out into your open arms... safe... alive. The pain of having your child no longer existing in this life.

It's just too much.

I can't even... it's not right or fair or human :(

[ememby]

It is pure evil and it is senseless. I mourn for all of us that we have to suffer it.