I was moved to write this after the Sandy Hook massacre and did not put it on my website but shared it on Facebook.  After the week this nation has endured I have decided to share it again.  Even though the events of this week were not a gunman in an elementary school, a tragedy is a tragedy and my feelings are much the same.

   I know when they handed out maternal instinct I got in line more than once.  You can ask my kids – who are now adults – I try to mother the whole world.  Once a pacifist, I had children of my own and the tigress came out.

But, after the massacre in Connecticut this week, I can’t quit weeping. They weren’t my children – I don’t know anyone in Connecticut, but I cannot stop the tremendous tearing of my heart.  Every time the news comes on, I find the tissues.

I weep for the children that died, I weep for the families who are left with no one to tuck into bed at night, and I weep for the family of the shooter.  For they too are hurting.  Do they wonder what they could have done differently to help the tortured mind that pulled the trigger? Probably nothing.   But there must be answers to stop the tremendous pain that causes someone to want to inflict even more pain on someone else.

What can we as a society do to prevent the infliction of this kind of tragedy on helpless victims?   Six to seven-year old children are easy targets and should be protected at all costs.  Would I have stopped him if I could have?  Without a doubt.  One adult life for twenty children is an easy answer to a difficult question.  Maybe until we can find a better one.

We have to end the violence.  But, mostly we have to protect the innocent. Tissues aren’t really going to fix the problem.