Nows and Forevers

It’s been 10 years since the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Twenty children and six adults were killed that morning, 11 days before Christmas, in a suburban Connecticut school. I’m a journalist who, by training and temperament, tries to stay professional about the tragedy that I’ve been around so much in my career. I’ve been able to keep to that for the most part, as difficult as it was and how often I wanted to cry.

I didn’t cover the Sandy Hook shootings. But it did occur in a town I knew pretty well, at a school I had been to once in happier times, and former colleagues of mine lost their daughter in the attack. And for all those reasons, it was more than just a headline.

As it was for so many people. Connecticut is a small state and it’s one that is connected so much to each other. I’ve lost count of the many people I know who knew somebody, or the family, of one of the children or adults who were killed.

“I wish I could tell you that the memory of that day has dimmed. I wish I could tell you that the knife-like sorrow and pain have subsided, but the fact is it is still raw and real for so many of us in Connecticut,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut. “My mind goes back to the horrors of that day, and I think that reliving it reminds us of the need to honor those 26 lives with action.”

#neverforget.