Their Families Are My Family

After my ranting about bullies, EQ vs. IQ, and the craziness of too much testing, I thought I’d switch tones and write a fun, positive post this time. Yesterday, I sat down and began to write all about my fabulous school visits and my excitement about new projects. I wanted to write about how students I’ve met are the future, and our future looks bright. And then I turned on the T.V.

I watched as families were shattered and lives changed forever. I watched and thought that now, these families are my family. This week we are all Bostonians, just as we were all Sandy Hook Elementary parents just a few short months ago, and just as we were all New Yorkers on Sept. 11, 2001. We are all Bostonians just as we were all part of the Columbine High School community in 1999 and Virginia Tech six years ago.  The dead and the injured of Boston are ours. The twenty nine year old woman is our sister. The middle aged runner is our uncle. And Martin Richard, the eight year old killed in the blast, is our son or grandson. We cannot separate ourselves from them.

I am saddened by the response of some of the students I see; not because they are callous or uncaring, but because they are not surprised. They are sad, scared, and angry, but they are not surprised. The post 9/11 generation has grown up knowing that there are terrorists in the world, and these things sometimes happen. They don’t remember when going through security at the airport was not an ordeal or when a lone suitcase wasn’t seen as a potential threat. Metal detectors in schools and at sporting events are the norm for these kids, as it has become for us.

As I get ready to celebrate the first birthday of my first grandchild, I think about his future. This little boy who melts my heart whenever he smiles, will have a childhood different than his father’s because it is a different world.  At first that upset me, but then I remembered that his father had a childhood different than mine. It was better than mine. I was a Cold War child hiding under her desk in fear of a nuclear holocaust. Every generation has had challenges, and I feel better remembering that we have faced and overcome them. The world is not ending; it is just changing. We will adapt to those changes, and fight for what's right. This generation of young people might just make things better. They may be the ones who help eliminate the rampant violence in our society.  

We will not forget, and we will not stop working to solve the problem, but things will go back to normal. Even in Boston, children will laugh and go to school. Mothers will rock their babies to sleep, and brothers and sisters will fight. All as it should be.

Yes, life will go on, and we will laugh again. But not today. Today, my thoughts are with Boston, and all who have been touched by senseless violence. Today their families are my family.