As we reflect upon the brutality that was inflicted upon some of our nations finest, our teachers, and our children, we must first morn, then pray, then send our prayers to Connecticut. Teaching is among our finest gifts… these teachers gave.
The children we lost today were already woven into the fabric of our next generation. They were to lead us, amaze us, and show us the next “best generation.” The fabric of that next generation now has a tear, an unbearable hole never to be mended, no matter how we try. So, today, we cry.
This is not a problem that can be fixed by politics, police, or acts of heroism, it is done, we can’t go back. So we must ask ourselves, why? What leads to the anger or despair? What causes the hatred or emptiness of conscience? What cumulative sadness or sickness is created in a soul that makes it take lives, innocent lives, this is what we must figure out. This desperation of a human in kind to commit such an act is what we must face together, to find an answer to Why? It is too easy to say he was ill, we must find why.
This tragedy is ours to own, together. Together we mourn. Today, the bell tolls in Connecticut. Today, the bell tolls for us all.
For Whom The Bell Tolls
John Donne
1624
No man is an Iland, intire of itself; every man is a peace of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
We share what we can for the families and the communities suffering in Connecticut. We share our grief.
The bell tolls for us all.