Eyes of a Child

“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together,put me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever .” ~ A.A. Milne (author of Winnie the Pooh)

     I, along with the rest of our country, am in shock and disbelief in response to the senseless slaughter that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.  The internet is filled with articles, reports, and other information as to the young man who committed this senseless act, the upbringing he lived, and the reasons for taking so many lives; including his mother's and his own.  There are a number of tributes to the victims; you can see memorials on this website and this website.  

     Our immediate reaction is to try to help.  A memorial fund for Newtown victims is here.  The United Way has also set up a fund for assistance.  There are also many charities dedicated to helping children in need.  The Pajama Program is established to help children in need obtain warm clothing.  Some of us may feel we need to physically do something.  If that is the case, and you are good with quiltmaking; then Project Linus is a program to provide handmade quilts to children in need.

    It seems finally we may be forced to look at the growing difficulty our nation faces with the subject of mental health, those who suffer from mental health "disorders", and our treatment of these very individuals.  I fear the first thing we will need to do is somehow make sense out of such a senseless act.  In order to gain understanding about mental health and the affliction some of us suffer when our mental health could be characterized as "unstable"; we very well need to comprehend the incomprehensible.

     That is the greatest difficulty we as a nation are having; we are trying to supplant rational thought in what we most agree as an irrational action.  Our first instinct is to place blame upon the various causes of this tragedy.  Were the mother not able to gain access to such firepower, would this many lives not be taken?   Were we to place armed guards at the schools entryway; would they be able to stave off the oncoming attacker (or would they add to the unfortunate count of lives lost)?   Were there warning signs with this young man that his mother and others failed to recognize and act upon?

     I fear that we may try to respond to yet another tragedy by creating a broad-brush approach in hopes of preventing any more senseless killing.  There is an admitted constant at the frequency of these tragedies taking place on a school's grounds and lives lost being that of the youngest of our fellow Americans.  The distinctions lie in the actors who carried out the carnage and their motivations for doing so.  I hope we spend significant time, debate, effort, and understanding into where to place our efforts in prevention to hopefully provide the cure of never having to mourn a similar tragic loss.

     People with more eloquence than me have written and issued their condolences to the victims, their families, and the community struggling to cope with this latest national tragedy.  
There are those who then have the unfortunate task of deciding what will become of the Sandy Hook School once the investigation completes.  I myself ascribe to the "hallowed ground" theory; make it a memorial to what transpired on that very plot of land.  I see no reason why we should not treat those grounds with the same reverence as the atrocities of 9/11 and other unspeakable acts on our soil.  

     I myself am growing weary in seeing children's lives being taken much too soon . As a father of a beautiful daughter, I can only hold her tight to me and thank our Father for the gift of her being here.  Sadly, like Eric Clapton before, many parents are unfortunately picturing 
"Tears in Heaven" .How many more parents need to bury their children?  How many children's eyes need to be darkened for the rest of their lives?  When will we all begin to cherish life and the gift of having it versus relish in death and ending it?  I hope and pray our new year begins to bring us answers to these questions.

Eyes of a Child 

It is said that we can find our youth

in the eyes of a child.

I have gazed through those of my daughter

just to look back for a little while.

To a time of wonderment and joy

a laugh and shared "I love you"

or "thank you" for gift of a toy.

Sadly the innocence of our young

is forever shattered

By darkened eyes and cold hands

pulling the trigger of a gun.

What can you do with eyes filled with fear?

Can you wipe away the sadness

As you try to dry away the tears?

How do you even give a reason why

When asked about their friends

And that they had to die?

All you can do is hold your child tight

kiss them good morning

And make sure they know

you love them each and every night.

Sadly fellow parents are left to mourn

and can only cherish memories.

I fear what I would become

were I not to see my daughter

looking back at me.

I will never truly understand

how far one must fall

to take the lives of children

as they try to end it all.

How can someone feel such darkness

and endure enormous strife

to take hold of a weapon

and end a precious life?

I ask our Father

and all powers from Above

to bring peace to families

forever left unable

too look upon the child's eyes

that they love.