Hello everyone! Here is my view on The Sandy Elementary School Shooting. I hope you have a great day !
http://hendersonpress.com/opinion/item/1632-why-sandy-hook-elementary
Wednesday, 09 January 2013 20:21
Why Sandy Hook Elementary?
Written by Eva Santiago, guest columnist
Why are we so shocked when a massacre such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut takes place? We are a society who values life very little and sometimes not at all. Do you ever wonder why previous generations never heard of such tragedies striking at the heart of their communities?
Why are school shootings such a modern day phenomenon? We have to be 100 percent honest with ourselves and take a peek back into our history because there, we will find some answers.
When Roe versus Wade was approved, the Supreme Court put a price on life by passing that law. Years later we have young, pregnant teen girls who end up throwing their newborns in dumpsters. It is not a long stretch of the imagination then, that perhaps the bad seed sown in the moral soil of our nations is now bearing thistles and thorns.
Our youth’s innocence is in peril!
We have the Hollywood machine that glorifies death and devalues life in film after film. The family is key to bringing up well-adjusted children and our families are in trouble.
The cornerstone of society is the traditional family consisting of a husband and wife working together to benefit the children they bring into the world. Now, we have T.V. shows that attempt to redefine the traditional family, meanwhile our kids are watching this and forming their own conclusions without any moral guidance from their adult care takers.
Societies where life is valued very little or not at all won’t last forever
I believe it’s already manifesting. Just because you have birthed a child or several children, does not necessarily mean you value life. If you have children and you raise them right; investing your love, time and talents to help mold them into future capable, well-adjusted adults; you value those lives because we value what we invest in.
The opposite is true too. If you have children and you neglect them; you don’t value life those lives. People who don’t value their own life will not value another’s.
Our nation’s young men are committing heinous random acts of violence. Conversely our young women throw their babies into the trash heap. Are we alarmed yet at the signs of the times?
From the cradle our kids are subjected to random acts of violence on T.V. Then they go off to school where too many of them are drugged to dumb them down.
Adam Lanza- the shooter in Connecticut, James Holmes-shooter at the Batman movie premiere, Eric Harris and Dylan Kliebold-shooters at Littleton, Colorado all had this in common: They were hooked on psychotropic drugs. This trend is frightening and it continues seemingly unabated. Indeed we are living with bad seed sown long ago.
Parents today, in hot pursuit of “the almighty” dollar have forgotten their kids. Children don’t need a lot of things. They require love, time and attention. Material things will never satisfy them.
Time well spent with them is what they crave. I don’t think any child grows up and misses the toys they had or didn’t get. When they grow up they reminisce about the good times and memories.
Who of us can look back on our childhood and remember everything we received at Christmas or birthdays? But we can look back and remember the times our parents or adult caretakers were present or absent when we really needed them.
So our dilemma has a simple solution. We must return to valuing life and it begins at home with our own children. Spend less time buying them things that break and don’t last forever.
Spend more time with your kids and let them know every single day that you love them. This is how we get back our families; one child at a time.
Thusly our nation can begin to heal and bring restoration to our communities. Love, time and attention are the keys to healing our children. Nothing else will work. It all begins at home…
R.I.P. To The Children and Families of the Tragedy in Connecticut.
Eva Santiago is the mother of four children, writer and poet. She is the author of ‘Salsa: The Taste of Life’. The opinions of guest columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Henderson Press ownership or editorial staff.
In shadow box beside editorial:
LOVE: A CHOICE FROM YOUR WILL
The fountain of youth
Atop a tall mountain
Trees on the side
Sky tops the peaks
The heart breaks each time
The silence is deafening
The whispers of nature
Nobody speaks…
The fountain of youth
Is love so eternal
Hate and grow old
Love and be eternal
To hate is to die
To love is to live
To hate you die slowly
To love is to hope
To hate is to choke
To hate is to hang from a rope
To hate is to drown
To hate is to murder..and give up your crown…
To love is to live
To live is to love
Live and let love in
Love and let life in
Hate is too late
Love’s always on time
Hate comes to kill
LOVE: A choice from your will. – Eva Santiago
