<p>DocT: So sorry for your co-worker’s loss. Nobody should have to go through what he’s going through now.</p>
<p>I just hope all the gun control fervor and activism lasts more than a couple of weeks. As a nation, we need to be serious about this issue and take significant action. There is no place for assault weapons and large magazine clips.</p>
<p>Doct - very sorry to read about your co workers child. Devastating…</p>
<p>Someone. Posted that the Westboro hate group/church group were rattling cages- today the hacker group Anonymous attacked them,stole their records and sent a warning they were bringing them Down-
Reading this was a.
bit of relief from the sadness for me</p>
<p>DocT- devastating update. Very sorry for all</p>
<p>Well, I’ve been crying for days too, with no connection to this horrible thing except for being a parent and a person. I’d like to think that we could understand why these things happen so we could prevent other losses like this. I’m a psychologist and wouldn’t have known what to do for this family except suggesting they lose the guns.</p>
<p>The Westboro people did show up as advertised in VT to hate us for same sex marriage. They seem to hate almost everyone. What would that feel like? I guess I feel sorry for them on some level.</p>
<p>Thank you for copying Meg Rowan’s words. They are helpful.</p>
<p>This was a good idea: [Comfort</a> dogs in Newtown: Looking For Comfort, Residents Turn To golden retrievers - Courant.com](<a href=“http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/newtown-sandy-hook-school-shooting/hc-comfort-dogs-newtown-sandy-hook-shootings-1218-20121218,0,6447819.story]Comfort”>http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/newtown-sandy-hook-school-shooting/hc-comfort-dogs-newtown-sandy-hook-shootings-1218-20121218,0,6447819.story)</p>
<p>Notice how there was a threat at another school. There have been several in the state over the last few days including a church. People are nuts.</p>
<p>DocT, I’m so sorry.</p>
<p>I’m glad this thread was started. I find myself having trouble sleeping and still crying during the day from time to time. This one just hit too close to home, for so many of us. I think the deep sorrow is normal. Painful but normal.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This I disagree with. Only if I go there and continue to go there can I be sure that I will do EVERYTHING I can personally as one citizen to try to stop this in the future.</p>
<p>“The world is full of light, and goodness, and mercy, even when we don’t deserve it or expect it.”</p>
<p>I’ve been the beneficiary of light, goodness and mercy on more than one occasion. It’s a wonderful thing, and usually doesn’t cost much beyond empathy for the plight of other human beings.</p>
<p>That’s part of what makes the events of last Friday so inexplicable. It takes just a little to be a positive influence in one’s community. Why anyone would choose evil escapes me entirely, and the fact this young man did choose evil makes me incredibly sad. How do you prevent recurrence of something you don’t understand?</p>
<p>DocT, I am so sorry that your coworker’s child was among the children who died. So very sad. My thoughts are with the family.</p>
<p>Oh Doc…I’m so very sorry. We hoped for better news.</p>
<p>A suggestion I heard – write a sympathy note/letter of support to your own child’s teacher. Or go and give them a hug next time you see them.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is exactly how I feel. I have been losing it when I least expect it–at a dinner party, grocery shopping, sitting at my desk at work. I drive by a grade school going to and from my office and it is just heartbreaking to see the little kids crossing the street and heading eagerly into the building. How awful that the sight of little children going to school should ever be “heartbreaking.”</p>
<p>Then, to make matters worse, just tonight I got a message from our high school that a kid had been suspended for threatening to “end the world” on Friday if the Mayan prediction didn’t come true. When I asked my daughter and her friend if they knew the kid, they said they knew his name but “had no idea” who he was.</p>
<p>I’m thankful for this thread. I’m an elementary school teacher and the last few days have been, well, surreal. Every night since Friday, I’ve had nightmares. Dreams about lockdowns at school but I look up at a vent in the wall and realize that we forgot to secure it. Then there is someone in the vent forcing it open with the butt of a rifle. Last night I dreamt there was a sniper outside the school, shooting at us as we tried to enter.</p>
<p>The Sandy Hook School’s safety protocol sounds exactly like what we have in place in our school. It is so hard to hear about teachers having to actually put it into use in a real emergency, especially when it didn’t end well. I look at the pictures of the kids and I literally see my students. The teachers look like my colleagues. And yet, the last two days came and went and all is well where I am. Lots of extra hugs from the little ones although most of them have been protected from the news, they sense something, I’m sure.</p>
<p>Nobody should feel guilty about having emotions about this. I’ts empathy and thank God we have it. It is what initiates change and reform. If we only reacted to those things that directly affect us, we would never upset the status quo.</p>
<p>The schools my kids attended were fairly “open campuses” and difficult to secure with many entrances and exits. It was scary enough when there were the rare bomb threats and we’d have to evacuate the entire school–this is much scarier for the kids AND teachers.</p>
<p>omg, docT. I have been wondering too. So horribly tragic. So sorry for your/your coworkers loss.</p>
<p>docT, I’m so sorry about your coworker’s child.</p>
<p>Did anyone else see the article about the retired psychiatrist who found 6 of the kids in his yard? He & a bus driver took care of them until their parents arrived. After they had all been picked up another mom knocked at his door. She’d heard some kids were there and she was looking for her child. Later he read her child’s name in the fatality list. Had to close my office door for a while after I read that :-(.</p>
<p>Yes. Thank goodness he & the bus driver were there for the kids–to offer what comfort and reassurance he could, contact their parents, etc. So very sad for the parents whose kids and all the families of those who were murdered. All of the adults at the school and surrounding area acted most heroically. They saved many lives.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for sharing your feelings. I, too, am struggling. I am close to tears often.
EPTR - I am experiencing many of the same things you are. I have so many nightmares that I’m afraid to go to sleep at night. Thankfully, the children haven’t brought it up at school. I’ve received many supportive notes and emails from parents. That support has been nice. S arrived home for break and you would think I hadn’t seen him for years. That first hug was extra tight. He is giving me extra hugs each day. Maybe he needs them, too.
DocT - I am so very sorry for you and your coworker and his/her family.<br>
My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the children and staff, the law enforcement and medical professionals, and all others touched by this tragedy - all of us.</p>
<p>I too feel so sad. My only comfort, the only thing I can do in my small way, is to try this, suggested by a wonderful charitable organization in my area:</p>
<p>“Do something today to add light to our world.”</p>
<p>Let’s all just keep trying to put kindness out there, expand our empathy, help each other when we can.</p>
<p>I also have been struggling with this. I am glad of this thread. It’s good to know that I am not the only one, thousands of miles away, taking it this hard.</p>
<p>I read somewhere today about, what I thought, was a terrific idea. Do 26 random acts of kindness. I think I will start that project tomorrow.</p>