Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

OT: Thoughts and Prayers for the people in Connecticut

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #76
    Juk... U make a good point but we are all grieving even though we don't have a direct connection we all as a nation are grieving.

    I grieve in 2 ways... I write and in a situation like this i stew and stew trying to figure out how to make sure it doesn't happen again.

    I know you didn't mean it as such but i think we all need to remember we process this stuff in our own ways and that's OK.
    You know Darren if you'd have told me 10 years ago that someday I was going to solve the world's energy problems I'd have said your crazy.... now lets drop this big ball of oil out the window.

    Comment


    • #77
      I agree with NoDak. I have several guns a do a great deal of shooting and hunting. I have a .223 that some deem as an Assault rifle. I also have a high capacity pistol that is a .22 and a .22 rifle that will hold more than 5 shots. The assult label is a bad one, as black guns are all makeup. I have shotguns that are semiauto and would fall under the definition. I also agree that this is a mental health issue and a societal issue, while we can take steps to mitigate these situations, we cannot address a larger issue with gun control. The killer in Oklahoma used fertilizer: I am assuming we will not be impacting the avialabliltiy of lawn care products. Now, when emotions are highest, is not the time to debate and rationally work through a larger issue.

      All of that being said, I am not going to debate the gun issue further and will honor Juk by looking to celebrate the lives of those children. I commented in another forum as to the strength and character of Robbie Parker and his comments regarding his daughter Emily. If we all shared his thoughts about our children, we would not be having this conversation.

      Comment


      • #78
        True, but I certainly want to be respectful to your intentions, Juk. Adversity and pain often brings about an aggressive response form me. This is not the time, my apologies.
        http://shop.cafepress.com/content/global/img/spacer.gifOK, let's try this again...

        Comment


        • #79
          Originally posted by kyfred View Post
          I agree with NoDak. I have several guns a do a great deal of shooting and hunting. I have a .223 that some deem as an Assault rifle. I also have a high capacity pistol that is a .22 and a .22 rifle that will hold more than 5 shots. The assult label is a bad one, as black guns are all makeup. I have shotguns that are semiauto and would fall under the definition. I also agree that this is a mental health issue and a societal issue, while we can take steps to mitigate these situations, we cannot address a larger issue with gun control. The killer in Oklahoma used fertilizer: I am assuming we will not be impacting the avialabliltiy of lawn care products. Now, when emotions are highest, is not the time to debate and rationally work through a larger issue.

          All of that being said, I am not going to debate the gun issue further and will honor Juk by looking to celebrate the lives of those children. I commented in another forum as to the strength and character of Robbie Parker and his comments regarding his daughter Emily. If we all shared his thoughts about our children, we would not be having this conversation.

          If you make it extremely difficult for people with mental illness to obtain high-powered weaponry, then you've gone a long way towards preventing these kinds of tragedies.

          It is not simply a "society" or "mental illness" issue. It's also an issue where too many people in this country own significant weaponry for no damn good reason. The price for your "freedom" to own these weapons is much too high. If you want to run around with high-powered weapons, I suggest relocating to Mogadishu. They are fine with it there.

          As for the old canard from the NRA that "now is not the time to be debating this." I call bullshit. Now is exactly the time. Take a look at the pictures of those 20 first graders. They were slaughtered so that gun owners could have their "freedom."

          And enough of the fertilizer and bomb-making and references to the attacks on the Chinese schoolchildren by the knife-wielder last week. Did any of those Chinese kids die?

          Nancy Lanza fit the exact mold of many of the most ardent gun owners. Her weapons were legal, registered, and extremely lethal. She apparently had a bit of a survivalist streak in her as well. Did her weapons protect her?
          Don't kid yourself Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd kill you and everyone you cared about!

          Comment


          • #80
            LT:
            The Brady Group praises Connecticut as having the 4th most stringent gun laws in the country. The mother was irresponsible in allowing her child access to guns when he was not stable. Effectively, those guns were stolen from her and then turned on her. Not once have I referenced my freedom to bear arms; I own guns for recreational purposes only. I am not a member of the NRA and have never professed that my guns are for personal protection. I believe Ms. Lanza was described as a gun enthusiast and not a maniacal gun owner with a tinfoil hat that held guns for personal protection. I am not here professing my need to protect myself against the tyrannical government, as that is a foolish argument.

            We can debate the time to talk, but I am not one for making knee jerk, emotionally based decisions. An evil person acted in a reprehensible way. He is to fault for his actions and those around him that knew he was a risk and did nothing are also culpable in their neglect.

            That being said, I’ll be damned if you try and throw dead children in my face or displace blame for the killing beyond the shooter. I look at those pictures and I see my dead son, I see my 7 year old blue-eyed daughter that I take to school on the way to the office and I see my 11 year old daughter. I am brought to tears at what I feel and, believe me when I say, that I fully comprehend the gravity of having your child taken from you with no notice. Far more than you will ever know and more than you pretend to care. I am pretty sure you do not understand their pain and are feeding the hysteria and need to blame someone or something for the cause. I can only comprehend a portion of what they are feeling and continue to cherish the hugs I share with my two children on a daily basis. If that makes me an evil gun nut that is part of the problem, then so be it.

            This is my last post on the gun issue. As Juk noted, there are children's lives we should be celebrating. I much prefer their memory is what lives on as opposed to the shooter's name.

            Comment


            • #81
              Today's funeral:

              “Our Beloved Prince,” James Radley Mattioli, 6 ¾, fondly called “J,” died December 14, in his classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He was born March 22, 2006, in Bridgeport.

              An energetic, loving friend to all, James loved baseball, basketball, swimming, arm wrestling, and playing games on the iPad (especially the lawn mowing game). He loved to wear shorts and t-shirts in any weather, and grab the gel to spike his hair. He would often sing at the top of his lungs and once asked, “How old do I have to be to sing on a stage?”

              James loved to dive off the diving board at the Treadwell Pool, swim like a fish in both of his grandparents’ pools and ride his bike, proudly without training wheels. He often said, “I need to go outside Mom, I need fresh air.” He spent endless hours playing hockey with his best bud and cousin, George.

              He loved and admired his big sister and wanted to do everything that she could do. They were the best of friends, going to school together, playing games together, and making endless drawings and crafts together.
              Don't kid yourself Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd kill you and everyone you cared about!

              Comment


              • #82
                I feel the worst for the parents of these kids. How do you recover from this? Truly sad all around.

                Comment


                • #83
                  https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/2...112384/photo/1
                  Don't kid yourself Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd kill you and everyone you cared about!

                  Comment


                  • #84
                    Originally posted by sfphillyfan View Post
                    I feel the worst for the parents of these kids. How do you recover from this?
                    Many never do. They survive, they go on but most don't really move on. There lives are filled with unexpected moments when they see another child that reminds them of the child they lost, and everything comes flooding back. Not infrequently, it destroys marriages. It helps if there are other children to love and protect but there is always a gnawing wound in the heart not far from the surface.

                    Over the years, I had the painful experience of working with 3 different families who had lost young children to violence or presumed violence. They were all simply heartbreaking. Not surprisingly, the family that had the most difficulty had their 5 year old little girl taken. An only child, she was never found. Not knowing is the worst, because there are no limits to the dark possibilities the mind can consider. It destroyed them both. Thinking back to their unending pain still makes me shudder.

                    Comment


                    • #85
                      I looked at the first photo and couldn't go any further.
                      Canada's #1 Eagles fan.

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        Gene Rosen heard the staccato sound of gunfire near his home Friday morning, but dismissed it as a hunter in the nearby woods.

                        Then, 15 minutes later, as he was heading from his house near Sandy Hook Elementary school to a diner, he saw the children.


                        There were six of them, small children sitting in a neat semicircle at the end of his driveway. A school bus driver was standing over them, telling them things would be all right. It was about 9:30 a.m., and the children, he discovered, had just run from their school to escape a gunman.


                        "We can't go back to school," one little boy told Rosen. "Our teacher is dead. Mrs. Soto; we don't have a teacher."

                        That's when Rosen's grandfatherly instincts kicked in.

                        The 69-year-old retired psychologist took the four girls and two boys into his home, and over the next few hours gave them toys, listened to their stories and called their frantic parents.

                        "I had no idea what had happened," Rosen said. "I couldn't take that in."

                        Victoria Soto, 27, was a first-grade teacher killed when 20-year-old Adam Lanza burst into her classroom. It wasn't clear how the children escaped harm, but there have been reports that Soto hid some of her students from the approaching gunman. The six who turned up at Rosen's home did apparently have to run past her body to safety.

                        "They said he had a big gun and a little gun," said Rosen, who didn't want to discuss other details the children shared.

                        On Friday, Rosen walked the children past his small goldfish pond with its running waterfall, and the garden he made with his two grandchildren, into the small yellow house he shares with his wife.

                        He ran upstairs and grabbed an armful of stuffed animals. He gave those to the children, along with some fruit juice, and sat with them as the two boys described seeing their teacher being shot.

                        Then Rosen called the children's parents, using cellphone numbers obtained from the school bus company, and they came and retrieved their children.

                        One little girl, he said, spent the entire ordeal clutching a small stuffed Dalmatian to her chest and staring out the window looking for her mommy.

                        And one little boy brought them all a moment of levity.

                        "This little boy turns around, and composes himself, and he looks at me like he had just removed himself from the carnage and he says, 'Just saying, your house is very small,'" Rosen said. "I wanted to tell him, 'I love you. I love you.'"

                        Rosen said Sandy Hook had always been a place of joy for him. He taught his 8-year-old grandson to ride his bike in the school parking lot and took his 4-year-old granddaughter to use the swings.

                        "I thought today how life has changed, how that ground has been marred, how that school has been desecrated," he said.

                        A couple of hours after the last child left, a knock came on his door. It was a frantic mother who had heard that some children had taken refuge there. She was looking for her little boy.

                        "Her face looked frozen in terror," Rosen said, breaking down in tears.

                        "She thought maybe a miracle from God would have the child at my house," he said. Later, "I looked at the casualty list ... and his name was on it."
                        Don't kid yourself Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd kill you and everyone you cared about!

                        Comment


                        • #87

                          LT,

                          Think how sad this makes us, who didn't know Jack and don't know John, feel when we read this little boys' note to his friend. Then magnify it 10 thousand times and we might approach the unimaginable pain the parents are in.

                          Comment


                          • #88
                            Man, those pictures rend my heart into pieces, and make me want to cry out.

                            Comment


                            • #89
                              Originally posted by tinopuno View Post
                              LT,

                              Think how sad this makes us, who didn't know Jack and don't know John, feel when we read this little boys' note to his friend. Then magnify it 10 thousand times and we might approach the unimaginable pain the parents are in.

                              It's unendurable, really. I'm having a tough time enduring it and they're not even my kids.
                              Don't kid yourself Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd kill you and everyone you cared about!

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X