The Commercial-News, Danville, IL

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December 16, 2012

A nation in sorrow

Commercial-News

DANVILLE — None of can know the horror the parents of 20 children experienced when they learned their babies were among the dead in Newtown, Conn.

Police say the son of a teacher at the school arrived Friday morning, took two handguns, entered the school and starting shooting.

By the time he took his own life a short time later, 20 children and six adults — including the shooter’s mother — were dead. The children were in kindergarten through the fourth grade.

Schools should be safe places, full of learning and laughter. Death should not walk through the halls.

Local schools already lock their doors, discuss procedures with teachers and make evacuation plans should a similar terror strike here.

Something must be done to stop this scene, one that has become too familiar, from happening again. There must be something.

This isn’t about guns or who should have access to them. This is more about identifying people who suffer with mental illness and making sure they receive the treatment they need.

The frustration we all feel in the wake of such incidents grows every times the scene repeats itself.

How can we stop it? What can we do?

A solution must be found. Too many people have died.

That discussion must be conducted on a national scale, and it should be done soon. If the lobbies on the left and right control our elected leaders so well that they try to stifle such a discussion, then they need to be replaced. Soon.

But today is not the time for all of that. Today, we all join the families in Connecticut and help mourn their losses as they prepare for more than 20 funerals..

Our hearts are broken.

There are no words.

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E-edition
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