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Life goes on. Not for the 20 school children killed Friday (Dec. 14) by bullets from a gun-wielding perpetrator in Newtown, Conn., but for all those touched — directly and otherwise — by such a tragedy. A death is a death, of course. And one child’s life is no less tragic, no less important, than a group massacre of innocents.
So what it such a serious subject doing in a place like this?
Because. Simply because.
Because sometimes moments in life — and death — can dwarf the world of sports.
If that’s not sufficient reason, feel free to wait another day — or take a look at previous postings — for something more fun.
For those who want some sports connection to the shooting of 20 youngsters and six adults at Sandy Hood Elementary, the NFL has asked for a moment of silence in honor of the victims before the league’s games this weekend.
“This shocking event has brought the nation together in grieving for the victims and their families as well as the survivors,” the NFL said in a memo to teams. “We believe it is appropriate and important for us to collectively recognize and participate in the grieving process at our games this weekend, as we have done on other occasions.”
Across America on Friday night, there were moments of silence at athletic contests. More will follow.
Closer to home — much, much closer — there were thoughts of nearby soccer fields. They are located at Nick Corwin Park in Winnetka, Ill. The park is named for a youngster shot to death in 1988 by Laurie Dann at Hubbard Woods School in the Chicago suburb. Nick Corwin was 8 years old.
At nearby Crow Island School, my daughter was in class. She had turned 9 days earlier. To say the impact of that day’s events were profound would be an understatement. I can remember a phone call at home — those were the days when I worked nghts — to come to school to pick up my daughter. I remember listening to the radio about the initial reports of the killing and wondering if the world was totally unraveling. I remember picking up my daughter at school and being thankful she and her classmates were unharmed physically.
More than 24 years later than that May day, the residual effect of that sunny Friday remains. All it takes is a comparable — or worse — incident to bring it all back.
Flash forward to Friday, 2012. Our daughter and son now grown to adulthood still remain our children. And the vulnerability any parent of a grade-school child feels is not much different from that of a parent of grown children.
After spending the day away from social media, your humble correspondent ventured into the world of Twitter and Facebook. Where, of course, could be found those warning about threats to the Second Amendment, those opining that the lack of God in schools was the reason for such tragedies. Such nonsense merely reinforced what a good decision it had been to stay away from such social (anti-social?) media.
In the darkness of late night/early morning, a quick glance revealed a tweet by Andy Borowitz (@BorowitzReport) from hours earlier: When the 2nd Amendment was written the most lethal gun available was the musket.
Borowitz is known as a humorist of biting wit. His tweet was simply a statement of fact. And much, much more, if you care to ponder the advances of weaponry, among other things. Perhaps someday mankind will make comparable advances.
After the Boston Celtics-Houston Rockets game Friday, Houston coach Kevin McHale and Boston star Kevin Garnett (whom McHale once traded for when he was Celtics general manager) embraced. McHale’s daughter recently died from Lupus.
OK, for those in need of something uplifting (and if you aren’t by this point, please pass along the name of your anti-depressant[s]), here are videos surely less somber:
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