Sandy Hook Connecticut - There are No Easy Answers

In avoiding opining on the tragedy that struck the small Connecticut town of Sandy Hook this past Friday, the search for answers, both through personal reflection and research, brought some confusion, and more sorrow. As a mother, it is unimaginable what must have taken place, it is beyond comprehension. There will be those who politicize the very personal grief that is taking place - it will be all about guns, or not. That argument appears to be somewhat deflated when one understands that without guns, those that are not quite right, so to speak will find other means: knives, machetes, to do evil.. That said - guns should never be near a child, or a man or woman who are child-like or emotionally unstable.

In looking at the problems of society as a whole, and thinking back on the decades of disasters and murders that are not quite explained away so easily, it is clear that there were few if none of these types of incidents in the 1950's, or 1960's or 1970's, but with increasing frequency in the last decade. That is when an article was found that was both politically incorrect and somewhat uncomfortable, but made some sense in the greater scheme of things: "Madness, Deinstitutionalization & Murder", a piece published in just March of this year. It speaks to the lack of care available to those who may do harm, the inability of the parents or families to find a "safe" place to hold a family member who is capable of committing murder - yet, those places no longer exist. Uncomfortable as this may be to discuss, institutions served a purpose, and the fact that in today's society, we are all seen as equal, or more to the point, our children are told they are equal, may be part of the problem. Perhaps, with talk about gun control, talk about keeping those who have a propensity to be a harm to themselves and others under lock and key, should be part of the discussion. It came up that the mother was divorced and therefore, that must be the problem. Another pundit quipped that it was the lack of religion (of course, there is little faith discussed now in our very secular society.), another that the parents and friends of the disturbed young man were responsible for not alerting authorities.(Which, by today's standards, that would include a few days or weeks of observation, then release into the stream of society.) Some rightly suggest that there is evil in the world.

That said, there are uncomfortable solutions, but really no solution or answers to what would cause someone to take the lives of innocents - except evil and an inability to deal with evil, in a real sense, from an early stage. The later, in our society as it stands, is simply not a reality. There is simply no respect for life, either born, unborn, aged, or infirm. There is a right to die, a right to a abort, there is - in essence generations, wedded to violence, also have a lack of of general belief if the import of life. The culture where we find ourselves, is not without hope, it is not without some safety, but there is a lack of dealing with situations with uncomfortable concepts when religion or mental illness, or evil are on the table.