I'm Sorry...in Advance

I'm sorry, in advance, if I offend anyone's "delicate sensibilities" (Matt Damon in "The Departed")

The wrong kids were killed in Sandy Hook.

The children who died at The Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14th, 2012 were beautiful, cheerful, darling little babies just beginning their lives.

They were sons and daughters, grandchildren, cousins and friends.

There is an unfillable hole in their families now.  Those youngsters will never again play in the backyard or wake up with a tummy ache or be thrilled with excited anticipation on Christmas morning.

They are gone.   Forever.

I was in Sandy Hook for the 8 long days after the shooting, covering the story with ABC News.  I was grateful for the assignment but hated the reason.

During that week we ended up in many conversations about what had happened and one recurring topic was the "media." 

The media was certainly there in force.  At least 1,000 journalists from around the world, accompanied by 100 satellite trucks and a lot of technicians, were everywhere.

In the local restaurants, at the firehouse, at the "downtown" crossroads.  There was no place you could go where you didn't encounter a member of the press.  We were ubiquitous.

And, to many local residents, we were an incredible pain in the ass and, some would say, the ultimate cause of the massacre.  The "fifteen minutes of fame" argument against the broadcast media.

But let me tell you something that may be a hard truth to hear.  Once we turned our cameras off, the story was over.  Not for the people in Sandy Hook who lost so much.  For them the story will never be over. 

But for the rest of the world "Newtown" became a slogan and a reference to the bloody past just like Columbine, and Virginia Tech and Aurora and the countless other examples of gun violence, large and small (Chicago, Detroit, Oakland anyone?) that are a part of our collective history.

Sure there is chatter about gun control in some quarters and maybe a few minds were either changed or opened, but the problem of violence and gun control will never change.

The politicians and, so-called "leaders", we look to for guidance are too cowardly and self absorbed.

They don't care about anyone but themselves and their own narrow self interests.

Which brings me back to my original premise.  The wrong kids were killed in Sandy Hook.

If they had been the children of the chairman of Smith & Wesson, or the children of the president of the National Rifle Association or the children of Congress, then we'd see action.

Had they attended Sidwell Friends or St. Albans or Deerfield then we'd hear an entirely different tune.

The unfortunate truth about our social structure is that the people we entrust to make the decisions that directly effect our daily lives are so disconnected from the realities that we face that they have absolutely no idea about the impact that those decisions have.

Men who never served this country send our sons and daughters to die in war.

Companies who don't use their own products foist those goods on us and turn the other way when we get sick or die from using them, disclaiming their way out of lawsuits.

And advocates against the myriad social issues that litter our consciousness, from abortion, to stem cell research to healthcare to gun control never seem to be the people directly affected by those "passionate" positions.

There's a big difference between an intellectual stance and the real world.  Philosophy has its' place in the classroom and the café.  The real world is what lurks just outside the door.

And it's tragic that the right kid's parents don't know that.