Too many looked away

If Adam Lanza is the stone thrown upon the water, then the ripples of whys start with a father and brother who left a parent alone to cope, a neighborhood that knew but didn’t respond, a community that wouldn’t embrace, and a country that turned its back on a mother and child in desperate need. The Syracuse coach pointed a finger first to himself and then out onto the world and said, “We’re all to blame.” Yes, indeed, we are!

But best said in all this horror is the person who asked us to change our use of language from “gun control” to that of “common sense gun safety.” Who among us cannot wrap our support around that purposeful thought so that, from this day forth, we never see 20 coffins holding the bullet-ridden bodies of precious 6- and 7-year-olds, ever, ever again. That it would take such carnage to jolt us to action must also be a sobering awakening.

Suzi Johns

Spokane