October 12, 2006

You know I’ve been thinking a lot about these school shootings lately. I know I’m not the only one in the country thinking about them but I can’t really shake the sadness I feel from them.

Is this is what our society has become?

Thirty years ago when I was in second grade, I had two major concerns going on in school. The first was how I would be able to dance with Joyce Roberts during square dancing in gym class. You see, I just loved Joyce and she was always fun to dance with, but she was tall. Very tall. How would I reach up to her to put my hands around her to dance? The other concern was that the elementary school had just purchased three new film projectors, and as Mrs. Hayden’s designated class film projector operator (she had to keep me busy, these days I’d probably be zoned out on ritalin), I had better know how to run these new fangled Singer film projectors. I heard they were much different than those made by Bell & Howell.

And that was the extent of my worries in elementary school. If I were that age today, would I have to worry that I was going to be shot by some madman that had broken into the school? My goodness, I don’t think the thought of someone breaking into the school crossed anyone’s mind back then.

The world has become so crazy. When I think of those young girls in that Amish school in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, my soul jumps through so many emotions. Obviously sadness, on several levels. Incredibly, however, I also feel a sense of awe and honor. Some accounts say that two of the older girls volunteered to be shot first in the hopes that the others could escape unscathed. The word admirable does not even begin to describe the courage of these two young women as they saw, accepted and sealed their fate at the hands of a madman.

Many advocate for the abolishment of guns completely. Of course you really can’t do that because you’d be trampling on the rights of citizens, but there certainly needs to be many, many more gun control mechanisms in place.

I have many questions, but like others, I don’t have many answers.