Another school shooting. Another school shooting, this time in New Mexico, where an 12-year-old boy on Tuesday sawed off a shotgun and shot two classmates, ages 12 and 13, before being restrained by a teacher. The classmates are alive, but one is in critical condition. Right after the Sandy Hook shootings, I wrote about some of […]
I hugged my son today, thinking of those who have lost theirs. It’s been one year since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. One year — and yesterday, there was another, as a high school student in Colorado opened fire with a shotgun and incendiary devices and critically injured a fellow student.
The scale of the disaster in the Philippines caused by Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda is almost beyond imagining. The latest count is 10,000 dead and over 600,000 displaced by the strongest storm to make landfall in recorded history. As we enter a season when many of us are already called on to make charitable donations, I hope many of us will find a few extra dollars to donate to one or more of the organizations leading relief efforts. Here’s how to find them.
Like many, I am deeply saddened and disturbed by the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. My wish now, in the aftermath of the verdict, is that we as a country use this as an opportunity to build bridges, not barriers.
Tonight, I am thinking of the friends I have whose family and friends live in Moore, Oklahoma. A tornado ripped through and destroyed two elementary schools, a hospital, and unnamed other buildings earlier today. The latest numbers from MSNBC say that seven elementary school students are among the dead, and another 30 are unaccounted for.
My thoughts today are with the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy, their families, and friends. My family and I live outside of Boston, and we consider the city almost as much our home as we do the suburb where our house stands. In college, I proudly joined the Wellesley College “Scream Tunnel” to cheer on the runners. Two days ago, my spouse and I spent the afternoon walking around the city, noting the crowd-control barricades already in place for the race in Copley Square.
Yesterday, I posted my column about the December 14th school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Today, I’m honored to bring you a guest post from my own mother, who had her own thoughts and offered to share them here. Some of our thoughts (not surprisingly) overlap, but she adds her own perspective as a mental health professional.
Thanks, Mom!
(I wrote this for my newspaper column the day of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. I hope 2013 is the year we as a country begin to take serious steps to ensure such tragedies never happen again.)
This was going to be a very different column. Then 20 children died in Connecticut.
Gun control is only one part of what our country must do to reduce the chances of another school shooting like the one December 14 in Newtown, Connecticut—but it is a vital one. There are a number of petitions out now to let our elected officials know our thoughts on the matter. I’m highlighting a petition and a pledge from Moms Rising because they’re good folks who do a lot across the board to help those of us who have the honor of being called moms.
