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The Worst Thing Today

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SonjaMarie
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Post by SonjaMarie » Fri December 14th, 2012, 10:24 pm

I hear you! If I wasn't on my anti depressants I think I would be prostrated with grief, but it did trigger a migraine. It made Obama tear up in a news conference.

I hope the dead one is rotting in hell or where ever evil people go after death.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Fri December 14th, 2012, 10:52 pm

[quote=""LoveHistory""]No question...Newton, CT. A man and his brother decided to kill their parents so they went to the parents' home and killed their father, then drove to the primary school where their mother taught kindergarten. One waited in the van while the other went in and killed not only their mother but at least 27 other people including most if not all of their mother's class and 7 other adults. The number of wounded is unknown at this point. The shooter is dead, the brother in custody.

What a horrible and senseless thing to do! And right during Hanukkah/before Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year's. How many families that should be celebrating will be grieving? How many gifts will go unopened? How many parents, siblings, pets, spouses, friends and other relatives will be shattered by this? How many police and medical workers will weep at what they see while they do their jobs, or when they get home afterwards? How many students and teachers will dread going back to that school, or be entirely unable to do so? And what kind of sick bastard murders kindergarteners?[/quote]

I am just so sick at heart over this, and it will be worse when I'm home and turn on the TV. I just spotted this quote:
"You go to a movie theater in Aurora and all of a sudden your life is taken," Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis said. "You're at a shopping mall in Portland, Ore., and your life is taken. This morning, when parents kissed their kids goodbye knowing that they are going to be home to celebrate the holiday season coming up, you don't expect this to happen. I think as a society, we need to come together. It has to stop, these senseless deaths."
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Sat December 15th, 2012, 12:03 am

[quote=""Misfit""]I am just so sick at heart over this, and it will be worse when I'm home and turn on the TV. I just spotted this quote: "I think as a society, we need to come together. It has to stop, these senseless deaths." [/quote]
This is the kind of report that makes parents of difficult young men cringe. It is always male, almost always between the ages of 16-30, and no, there isn't much that can be done to prevent this kind of thing except pray.
It isn't because of the guns, the violence, the music, the media, or the video games --- access to evil influences is endemic.

I do wish one of the teachers / adults at the school had had a weapon to hand. It would have reduced the carnage considerably. That's how it played out in the case of the Colorado megachurch where a similar event happened and the guy was winged after killing only four victims. With his rampage thwarted mid-act, he turned the gun on himself earlier in the process.
Last edited by MLE (Emily Cotton) on Sat December 15th, 2012, 12:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

rebecca
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Post by rebecca » Sat December 15th, 2012, 2:17 am

I think there are some events that are simply to horrific to really grasp and sadly this day is one of them. I cannot imagine what went on in the murderers mind as he went on this rampage to kill the innocent, not because they had somehow offended him. Why did he murder those children and teachers? I don't know and I don't think any of us will know and do we really want to know?

I cannot grasp the pain of the parents of these fallen children who will go home and see the presents they so carefully wrapped sitting under their Christmas tree which their children had helped decorate. These presents will not be opened on Christmas day; there will be no squeals of delight, no giggles, no laughter and also no tantrums. There will be silence.

It will be a dreadful silence and a heartbreaking silence.

My mind cannot grasp the enormity of this evil act and perhaps in self-preservation it seeks to protect itself against the pain that such knowledge would bring. There will be many words spoken over the next few weeks, none of which will comfort those who will never again see the smiling face of their child or the tired face of the teacher who returns home after a hard day’s work.

Some events are simply too dreadful for words and for which no word will suffice.

"The prayer that prevails is not the work of lips and fingertips. It is the cry of a broken heart and the travail of a stricken soul."
Samuel Chadwick

I think I will leave it there.

Bec :(

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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Sat December 15th, 2012, 4:41 am

Some of what was reported earlier has turned out to be untrue. But the basic horror is still the same. The older brother was not involved, and the father was not killed. The mother was killed in her home and then he went to the school.

I feel sick.

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Vanessa
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Post by Vanessa » Sat December 15th, 2012, 11:41 am

Dreadful and heartbreaking news. What a disturbed individual he must have been. My thoughts are with the families concerned.
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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Sat December 15th, 2012, 5:13 pm

Absolutely heart-breaking tragedy. I saw this article on Twitter from the New Yorker and thought it some pertinent things to say:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/c ... l?mobify=0
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

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annis
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Post by annis » Sun December 16th, 2012, 12:19 am

I agree with the sentiments expressed in the NY article too, EC, but then I don't live in a country where the right of the individual to bear arms is so firmly ingrained in the national consciousness. In NZ even our police don't carry arms. President Obama is likely to use this massacre as an incentive for US to make law changes around gun control, but unfortunately I can't see him making much headway.

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Sun December 16th, 2012, 10:56 pm

On the other hand, Mexico has some of the world's strongest gun laws. How's that working for them?

Helen_Davis

Post by Helen_Davis » Mon December 17th, 2012, 12:05 am

[quote=""MLE""]On the other hand, Mexico has some of the world's strongest gun laws. How's that working for them?[/quote]

Good point MLE. Mexico is not doing well at all.

Anyway, my worst thing today was this librarian yelling at me and giving me nasty looks for no reason.

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