Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting: Memory of Victims Friday, December 14, 2012.

Dear Paul B Readers,

We all agree a line was crossed last Friday. The wakeup call was a life-changing torture of emotions for me. There needs to be wholesale changes in our gun laws, and it needs to happen NOW! I encourage any of you who feel as though YOUR LIFE has also changed, to send me your stories, your thoughts, your feelings. Whether they be anger-filled rants or inconsolable and heartbroken emotions, please feel free. The following story of a retired psychologist (Dr. Gene Rosen,) who found six children from Sandy Hook Elementary School in his driveway that morning, will effect you in a most memorable way, just as it affected me when I read it today. I found it on a YAHOO headline.

Dr. Rosen took these six children into his home, after they had escaped the “killing fields” which had been their elementary school, just minutes before. They had run from the school after their teacher had risked her life to save them. Dr. Rosen could only comfort them with toys that he had saved for his grand-children, when they would visit. One little girl clutched a small dalmatian to her chest as she looked for her Mommy to arrive. The remaining text, I will ask you to read and ask yourself how any of us can be the same person before this epic tragedy as well as this sad, heart-wrenching tale below.
Dr. Rosen said it wasn’t his training as a psychologist that helped him that day — it was being a grandparent.

A couple of hours after the last child left, a knock came on his door. It was a frantic mother who had heard that some children had taken refuge there. She was looking for her little boy.

“Her face looked frozen in terror,” Rosen said, breaking down in tears.

“She thought maybe a miracle from God would have the child at my house,” he said. Later, “I looked at the casualty list … and his name was on it.”

I can only plead that all of us take this, and every opportunity, to alert our police and school officials whenever we feel that anyone has psychological issues. There are “typically” overt signs, signals or body language that can be construed as anti-social behavior — with or without a cry for help. We must speak up and take action when any of these signs or signals are demonstrated. Even if it seems trite or unfounded at the time, we must try to stop these horrible tragedies from taking place ever again.

Let the debate begin, but it’s time for effective action.

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