HEY!  REMEMBER SANDY HOOK?

The Christmas season, the season of love, family, celebration, and joy, is also marked by a terrible anniversary.  It has been three years since a sick young man slaughtered 20 babies and six teachers in their school with his military style combat weapon.  For the families of those killed, and those who still think and care about it, today marks an anniversary of how little has been done since that horrifying event.  How easy it seems to be to move on and forget. 

Oh, right, one reason is because Sandy Hook has been eclipsed by too many other such slaughters.  Some 554 children have died in gun violence since Sandy Hook.   It seems our legislators have been stunned into numbness by repeated, shocking episodes of violence that have affected every region, every state. 

Are we not the United States?  The strongest hope for the world?  Why are we not united on this issue?  Governors and states have tried to tinker with addressing this problem, but the only way gun violence can be reduced (not ended -- we know this) is for a united, federal, program with vigorous, vigilant enforcement.  Why is it so hard to get this done, when polls show that the majority of Americans agree?

I am the mother of a dead child.  He did not die by gunfire in his kindergarten class, or in a movie theater, or a mall.  He was not little.  Nevertheless, the pain I feel every moment of every day of his loss I can imagine is magnified a thousandfold for those who have lost those little children on December 14, 2012.  My heart aches for them, and for this country that has been unable to do a thing to lessen their pain, even a little. 

Shame on us.