The madness
continued in America last week as we, as a nation, shook our heads and shed a
collective tear for the victims in Newtown, Connecticut. Despite what the
talking heads on the news want to assume, nobody knows what was going through
the killer's head prior to the bullet that ended his life, and we never will.
Personally, I don't care what his
motivations and reasons were. Did his mom, who he also killed, spank him too
much or deny him additional television time? Again, I don't care and to spend
any additional time discussing it is pointless.
What is important is the healing that
needs to happen now. Not just with the families in Newtown, but with any family
that has young children who have been exposed to the onslaught of the media's
salacious coverage of the tragedy.
In their efforts to keep us informed,
they always lose sight of the damage that they are doing to their youngest
viewers. They may want to console themselves by thinking that all the young
ones out there are being insulated from the tidal wave of descriptions their
words paint, but they are not. Those mental pictures are the things that
children's nightmares are made of.
As a parent, I cannot begin to imagine
the level of grief and pain that the parents of the victims are going through. I
can only look at my grown children and be thankful that my wife and I were
there for them as much as we could be. As a parent that is all you can do. You
know that you can't be there every second of every day. You can only wish you
were.
As I listened to the President speak
at the memorial service for the victims he echoed that very sentiment. He also
said he wants to find a way, as do we all, to make these senseless killings
stop. It is a tall order and to be honest, one that I don't see a solution to.
Evil will always be with us, as will good. The only thing that we can hope for
is that the scales of humanity stay tilted in the direction of good.
The two parts of the equation are
guns and mental health, both of which
are too prickly of pears for most people
to swallow. While stricter gun control might be part of the solution, the
second amendment will never go away and
mental illness can only be monitored so far. If there is a cure for what is ailing us as a
nation it is going to be a tough one to find.
There is one thing that a tragedy
like this does make clear and that is how petty some of the things we choose to
complain about seem. It puts into perspective what is truly important,
especially during this time of year.
It is not about who won or lost an
election, the person in front of you that cuts you off on the freeway on the
way home or the guy ahead of you who grabs the last Xbox off the shelf at
Walmart. It's about the people in your
life. The ones you love and who love you.
Relish every moment that they are with you because nothing lasts
forever.
Make sure that they know how happy you
are that they are part of your world. Life is hard enough without looking back
later and wishing you had.
Once that door is closed there is no
opening it again.
Happy Holidays and may we all have a
better New Year.
Bill Dunn has been a published opinion columnist for 15
years. Any comments can be sent to
either our exalted editor at tmiller@beaconmedianews.com
or to Bill directly at
dunnsinferno@casegod.com You can also
find Bill on Facebook at : www.facebook.com/WhenAllisSaidandDunn
