Sandy Hook: I'm Done Being Afraid

I don't want to live in fear.

In light of the events taking place in Connecticut last week, I felt like it was time to say something about it. I don't have anything particularly insightful to say. It really sucked, and it makes me feel sadness for the families going through such a difficult time right now. I think of my own son and family, and I can't even imagine how something like that could happen. The thought of it happening anywhere close to my life terrifies me...

But still, I'll say it again, I don't want to live in fear. Despite everything that happened, I refuse to live in fear because of it.

Being afraid of something like this  solves nothing. There are some messed up individuals in this world, and nothing we do will ever rid us of them. They will always find some way to destroy. But look at how resilient the rest of us are. Look at how we rebuild, never fading, never quite forgetting what we are. That wouldn't happen if we remained afraid of such madmen. Fear makes us angry, not allowing us to look rationally at the problems before us.

I don't care so much about gun reform, but I certainly don't want to see armed guards walking around and "protecting us", telling us what we can and can't do. Hell, I get nervous now going to a movie because there are armed police officers on sight, a constant reminder of our own fear and of course, the deadly attack not too long ago in Colorado.

The majority of us know what we are not supposed to do, and I think we should stand up for that. We should  tell our leaders that we do not need more rules and regulations. We don't need armed protectors on every street corner.

We need sanity. We need to listen to those few individuals in society that are incapable of respecting the lives of the rest of us. Many of them simply need help, they need resources to help identify them, treat them, and in some cases, house them. I'm in now way advocating locking up the mentally ill, but currently, there is so much red tape between the mentally ill and help, that nothing can be done to help them. Until it's too late.


There will always be butchers in the world, people without any regard for the rest of us, people who only want to see the rest of suffer. But the mentally ill...there are ways to treat them, to help them, and maybe, save ourselves and our children in the process.