'Tears today in Connecticut': Residents react to Newtown tragedy

Connecticut residents shared on Friday their reaction to the mass shooting in Newtown. Here's a sampling of their thoughts.

Increasingly too close to home: As the day progressed, the horror crept closer and closer: an email from our town's police that our schools had extra patrols; postings on Facebook that a local friend had attended Sandy Hook Elementary School; an email circulating that my husband's hockey buddy's friend lost his wife; and finally, one of my close friends called to tell me she went on vacation with one of the victims last year.

I am sad. So sad. How is it that our children not only have fire drills, but lock-down drills as well? I am glad that my 6-year-old is much too young to process why he has to regularly practice hiding under a desk or in a closet. This exercise is supposed to protect his so very precious life from insane people with semi-automatic weapons. It's really unthinkable.

As news spread across the country, I received calls from Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa and New Jersey. One of my oldest friends texted me: "so awful and sad when u hear such stories u expect it to be a high school, not an elementary school." And I wrote back that "it's pathetic we expect it to be any school at all."

-- Jocelyn Fredrics, Fairfield

***

Let us protect our kids, for goodness' sake: As I hugged my 3-year-old son tightly and put him to bed, after an evening of watching Disney cartoons with him, I could not help thinking about the parents of those 20 children who lost their lives in Newtown on Friday.

I looked into my son's peaceful face and immediately felt a deep sense of sorrow for them and also a little fear for my own son, who attends preschool in Rocky Hill, about 45 minutes northeast of Newtown.

I also felt that we as adults are not doing our duty to the generation that will be following us. We are not only content with saddling them with insane amounts of debt, but also we are OK with archaic laws and regulations that do not even protect them from violent crimes!

-- Anindya Chakraborty, Rocky Hill

***

Shattered and heartbroken: I first heard about the shooting while I was preparing for work. I prayed that no one was injured. As I was driving down 84W to work in Southbury, I saw a dozen state troopers headed to the Newtown area. I'd never seen anything like it.

I am shattered with grief for the Newtown community. Thinking of these parents who will never get to hug and kiss their children--that these children were as young as 5 years old--that truly left me brokenhearted. These kids never got a chance at life. A monster stole their lives away. Not only that, he took the innocence of the children who survived.

-- Shauna-Nicole Silva, Southbury

***

Innocence lost: Everyone keeps asking, "Who would do something like this?" I don't believe we'll ever have an answer. It's unreal to think that what is supposed to be the happiest time of the year has turned into one of the most tragic events I've seen. The thought of holiday presents left unopened at 20 households sickens me.

My thoughts go out to all the families affected, the heroes who protected the students who survived, and the 27 new angels. I don't know what can be done to prevent tragedies like this, but we can start by appreciating the ones we have while we have them.

-- Alison Pierre, Ridgefield

***

Sandy Hook draws a new line: I could barely wrap my brain around the idea that yet another small, sleepy town in Connecticut was impacted by violence. I've recently moved to New Fairfield and, in a 3-month span, a teacher killed his adopted son, and a husband killed his wife, a teacher from Wilton. Now just 14 miles away, nearly 30 people were gunned down in Newtown.

I instantly knew that he killed our smallest, most innocent and vulnerable. It's unheard of. I tried to put into some structure to the situation. Then I realized that there is no frame of reference for the killing of 5- to 10-year-olds. Or the concept that a kindergarten teacher had a licensed arsenal used against her. Where Columbine drew a line in 1999, Sandy Hook drew a new one on Dec. 14, 2012.

-- Danette Onofrio, New Fairfield

***

An unfathomable massacre in Connecticut: I have trouble comprehending the enormity and senselessness of the act, the cruel and sudden intrusion into the community. Pictures of frantic parents descending on the school, with grief, fear and uncertainty etched visibly into their faces, touched the core of my being.

Children should huddle together for joyous games and youthful camaraderie. They should huddle together for telling secret jokes and joyous tales. They never, ever, should be huddled together in two classrooms terrified, hiding and fearing for their lives.

As the day wore on and my mind was still having difficulty processing the cruelty, sorrow and finality of the day's events, a strange thought intruded that left me tearful. Surely with less than two weeks to Christmas, many of the parents had already purchased gifts for their children. Many of the children were in the process of creating the inevitable school project artwork assorted Christmas trinkets and cards that we gladly display on the refrigerator for the holiday season.

These will still be here on Christmas morning. Sadly, the proud givers and intended recipients will not.

-- Edward Van Bomel, Shelton

***

Time for support, joining forces: Those who are religious put their faith into God, and it would be easy to lose faith after something like this, but now is the time to believe more. Something needs to come out of this and my hope is that we will one day find out.

Our state joined together earlier this year when a resident of Southbury, Conn., was shot in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater tragedy. Now is the time for our state and the entire nation to get behind what is usually a cozy place to live and support each other. We need to all join forces now and show support to our community.

-- Hobson Lopes, New Milford

***

Today, Newtown's kids are everyone's kids: Today, tragedy befell a town 48 miles away from me. Forty-eight miles takes about 40 minutes to drive. But the way those miles and minutes closed up on me this afternoon hit me like a ton of bricks. I do not know their names, these people slain today. I just know that there are 18 children not waking up too early for Saturday-morning cartoons and cereal tomorrow. I know that there are husbands who have lost their wives, wives who have lost their husbands, and neighbors whose houses will be sadly devoid of anyone having ever been there.

My youngest son is 6. He is a first-grader who excels in math, loves dinosaurs and video games, and is truly a light in my two-bedroom apartment. There is not a single part of me that is not touched by him, from pajamas left errantly on his bedroom floor, hearing him whine about not wanting to finish dinner, to those moments where he just tells me, "Mami, you're the bestest!" I don't know what I would do if I couldn't hear that again--couldn't see him get the chance to be the man he deserves to be.

Today, Newtown goes down in bloody infamy. And though they have no idea of who I am, I extend my arms to each and every one of the residents of that neighboring town. Those kids weren't just their kids. They're everybody's kids. Today, the world cries with Connecticut.

-- Desiree Napoleon, Hartford

***

The unthinkable in Newtown: I'm a life-long resident of Connecticut, some 47 miles to the north and east of Newtown--not close enough to hear the guns booming life away from those little children, but close enough to feel the pain and loss of those innocents.

I have 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Three of the greats are in elementary schools many miles away from Sandy Hook. They're trusting, wide-eyed, eager to learn and beautiful children--just as were the 18 or more little ones denied their future this morning, just 10 days from Christmas Eve and all of the excitement that comes with that magical night.

I can't bear the thought of what the parents are feeling. I can't bear the thought of what the little souls are feeling as they wend their way to heaven. There is that consolation that they are on their way to a beautiful place without pain and with joy and light.

-- Gail Hoxie, Winsted

***

You can't legislate crazy: Adam Lanza was a crazy person. He must have been. In no sane worldview is indiscriminate and unprovoked murder of innocent children acceptable. Ever. And because of that, there was no way to stop him from perpetrating the most horrendous act ever perpetrated in Connecticut's history.

Crazy people do not concern themselves with the law. They are not constrained by the legality of things. When they are moved to murder, they find guns--easily through legal channels, or difficultly through illegal means.

But they find them. Or they find knives. Or baseball bats. Or homemade explosives. They find a way.

In my town of Stamford, about 40 minutes away, most are reeling from this tragedy. People are trying to understand just what could make a person perform such despicable acts. People are grasping at straws to make sense of the deaths of these innocents and adults--to bring some sense and meaning into these meaningless killings.

-- David J. Kozlowski, Stamford

***

Tragedy at my doorstep: I do not know one of the families involved in this tragedy. Instead I am just a dad who asks, "How am I supposed to protect my daughter from this?"

This is not about gun control, or politics. Not about school security or lack thereof. It's about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I moved away from the Bronx in New York to start my family. To a nice quiet town in Connecticut just a few towns over from Newtown, just to get away from the rage and violence of the city and suddenly I am reminded that no matter where you go you cannot hide from this type of danger. You see, this one is closer than my backyard; it's right on my doorstep and no amount of gun control or law enforcement or school security could have prevented a lunatic with an agenda to destroy life. It is with a heavy heart that my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.

-- Jon Russo

***

Tears today in Connecticut: I am a librarian assistant at a high school in Storrs. Today's tragedy in Newtown was felt throughout the day--police here were on campus, students were walked to their cars, administrators staged themselves in the main lobby. My mother emailed me all day, keeping me informed and up-to-date. I held back tears many times, not able to stop thinking about this senseless horror. What would I do if it happened here in my Storrs school? What would I be feeling if it was happening at my niece's high school in Beacon Falls?

This catastrophic anger that leads to insane acts such as this needs to stop. We stop it by choosing love over anger? every time. Stop being angry, even slightly, at your spouse, your children, family and friends who have hurt you. Forgive them all and choose love instead. Loving energy will start fueling this nightmare of our world instead of anger. And maybe, just maybe, tragedies like this will become less and less. Please. Stop allowing the anger to win. Choose love instead.

-- Tami Hawley, Storrs

***

Tragedy and questions: As a Connecticut resident who listened to and watched radio and TV coverage of the incident, it reminded me that what happened in Newtown today could very well happen again someday, and not just in Connecticut.

The pain and suffering that the victims' families and friends have felt in the wake of the tragedy is heartbreaking; so is the somber realization that the world has become more dangerous and complex than anyone realized. Somber, too, is the understanding that we may never learn the full reasons behind the shooting rampages that affected Newtown and other locales throughout the world in the past, leaving us with nightmarish images that remain damning today. What lingers, too, is a reminder of what might have been for the countless victims who had so much to live for. We can only hope that someday, such acts of insanity become a thing of the past.

-- John Lavernoich, Winsted

***

Newtown shooting hits home in many ways: I live in Middlebury, a town just 14 miles east of Newtown; I have driven through Newtown many times.

In the past, these tragedies occurred in places hours away, instead of mere minutes.

There are no words to describe today's tragedy.

-- Tim O'Donnell, Middlebury

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tears-today-connecticut-residents-react-newtown-school-shooting-000400999.html

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