HEART ~

Some of what President Obama did tonight 

in Newtown, Connecticut

The family of Emilie Parker, who was 6, and a victim, released this photograph to the public

also:

"Human rights lawyer and law professor Bill Quigley writes that while the President offers condolences to the families of the 20 children shot in the massacre in Newton, Connecticut, he must also remember the countless children across the globe who die in tragedies every day, including "the 231 children killed in Afghanistan in the first 6 months of this year."

And on Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated in a report that ongoing violence in Afghanistan was taking an “unacceptable toll” on civilians, with an increase in civilian casualties of 28 per cent between 1 August and 31 October compared to the same period last year.

"Women and children are often the victims of the war between the Taliban and US-led Nato and Afghan forces, now in its eleventh year," the Irish Times writes in a report on Monday's blast."
(from "Common Dreams")

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/17

WOMEN ~

I watched for hours and hours and hours through Friday all this heartache from a one-shooter slaughter of small children and others in Newtown, Connecticut. It's quickly too much. The fact that the childrens' torn and dead bodies were being left in the school all night was already too much to bear. It's evident while men are storming the grounds in heavy artillery, which is also way too much, the women are a standout during this tragedy — including even the women in the media. I was struck by this teacher, who survived the shooting, and her actions with children that she had hustled into a bathroom and just waited. Imagine imagine just imagine this. When she came to the moment in her story that she looked at the children and realized someone had to tell them they were loved. . .she had me in the palm of her hand.