Like everyone in this country, I am struggling to understand the events in CT. Like the rest of the country (perhaps the world) I am angry at the senseless loss of life, at the randomness of it. At least with Columbine, I could understand the motive - bullied teens with anger directed at their peers. But this I simply do not get.

Like the rest of the world, I read media reports (which are mostly useless) and try to comprehend what happened. Along with anger and sadness there are some really bizarre ones (like Mike Huckabee), but hey, at least he is a consistent nut job.

The tragedy really opened the flood gates to talk about things like mental illness and of course gun control. While guns and the right to bear arms has always been a hot topic, the mental illness is something people normally don't discuss. It's a red-headed stepchild of uncomfortable topics, but the lack of structure and support for parents of mentally ill children needs to be discussed and addressed.

My mother had a perspective on the shooting which I didn't think about: "at least he killed his mother first, so she wouldn't have to deal the aftermath of his actions". Along these lines, in my travels on the Interwebs I came across this very honest and painful blog entry. Read it - really puts in perspective what it is like to have no one to turn to, and no way to improve a really frightening situation. But, along with support for speaking out (which, IMHO, should have been unanimous) there are some really nasty responses to this. I applaud this lady's honesty.

My heart really goes out to the parents, the teachers, the students. All these poor, poor little babies.