Violence Is Ugly But Ignoring It Won’t Make It Go Away

As Congress begins talking about what can be done to lessen gun violence in our country, I try to remain hopeful.  I believe there is indeed a dialogue going on amongst the citizens and I hope the legislators are listening.  Because they are who represent us most directly.  We elect them to represent our interests when passing laws for our country.  We don’t elect them to vote the way special interest groups want them to and we all need to remember that.

Lately I have been seeing more articles where first responders and family members from Newtown are speaking out about their experiences.  Asking for everyone to talk and listen.  And in some cases, sharing details of the tragedy and aftermath.  There are some people who think the horrific details should be swept away.  I am not one of those people.

I think we have become so desensitized to violence and its effects that we have lost sight that victims are people with real, ugly wounds.  And a good number of those victims are really dead.

There is no fake blood, no plastic body parts.  It is real.

And can be so unbearably mangled that family can’t bring themselves to look.  Can’t see them to say goodbye.

Now I don’t think that bystanders should be the ones to be sharing the gory details, I really think it should be up to the victims’ families and first responders themselves to share their experience.  My heart breaks again with every detail I read but I feel that I need for it to break to know that this means so much to me.  Preventing something like this from happening again as best I can means so much to me.

I can’t begin to imagine the pain and suffering these families and this town is going through.  I think about it so much and hope with everything I have that it never, ever happens again.

But hope is not enough.  There needs to be changes and we all don’t agree on what those changes are.  I’ve stated some of my thoughts before.

I ask you to stay in the conversation by expressing your thoughts to the legislators that represent you.  Get informed about the discussions going on.  Take a moment to listen to victims’ families and survivors and hear them.  Take a moment to listen to both sides of the debate.

It is ugly.  Horrific actually.  And the debate will probably be ugly too.  But ignoring it most definitely has not worked.  We shouldn’t have to lose more innocents to make that point.

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