My thoughts

By now the news from Clackamas and Connecticut are widely known. Having one shooting so close to home and the other take place in a school has made it much more real than previous mass shootings. I was in high school when Columbine and Thurston happened. Back then, I felt connected to the victims and the other students in the school. But now, hearing the stories from the teachers is too much for me. I refuse to watch interviews with children. (And shame on the media for interviewing kids.) I heard one interview with a teacher who hid her students in a room and told them all how much she loved them, because she didn't want gun fire to be the last sound they heard. I can't imagine what I would do in that situation.

There has been a lot of talk about gun control and mental health care. I think there needs to be improvements to both. But what we really need? More compassion. And knowledge. And then action.  We have to look outside of ourselves and to see that other people are hurting and struggling. As a whole, we need to be more educated on what to look for in our friends/neighbors/coworkers and we need to know how to help them, or who to turn to when they need help.