I don’t know what made little Grace stand out in my mind more than the other beautiful children that were the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. Something about Grace’s photo stays with me. I guess it could be her smile, or her bright innocent eyes, or her soft blond hair, but there was something about her that stayed in my thoughts. Maybe it was knowing firsthand the joy that only a 7 year old little girl can provide to those that love her. But for whatever reason her precious image stays with me.
I can’t begin to imagine the immeasurable pain that her family went through that horrible day. The thought that a service assault weapon was used on these innocent children is simply too much to even process. Here in America this should never have happened. This horror should never have happened in the one place where our children deserve to feel safe and protected; their classroom. As a society that claims to value our children above all else we failed Grace and the 19 other First Graders and 6 brave staff members that died that heartbreaking day.
We can never go back and change what happened that day, but the fear that haunts our thoughts is that these children are no different from our own. This horror could have happened in any school or any classroom in this country and that reality makes this nightmare tangible.
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It was 10 months ago today this tragedy took the lives of 20 First Graders and 6 teachers, yet nothing has changed in America. The family of Grace McDonnell will never sit in the stands and watch their daughter graduate from high school, yet the assault weapon used to murder all 26 victims is still legally sold; Grace’s family will never see her go off to college; yet 30 round magazines are still legally sold on the internet; Grace’s parents will never dance at their daughter’s wedding, but the NRA was able to thwart expanded background checks for gun sales.
Someday, we may regret allowing deep divisions in our nation to block the passage of reasonable gun control legislation. Someday, we may be held accountable for doing nothing in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School Tragedy.
