I have been thinking a lot about Sandy Hook this week. Twelve years and just a few days ago, I was standing in my then girlfriend’s kitchen (now wife of 10 years) as we were preparing to go somewhere, I don’t even remember where. I was scrolling Twitter and started seeing breaking news about a shooting at an elementary school somewhere in Connecticut, where we lived. Then I realized it was in Newtown, virtually next door to Westport where she worked as a minister and I (still in grad school) was helping to run educational programming at her church. We scrapped our plans and drove to her office. We saw fear in our students’ faces. We saw it even more painfully in their parents: they all knew someone in Newtown, it was another wealthy Connecticut suburb like theirs, it was supposed to be “safe”. How could this happen here? We heard from colleagues in Newtown who had been thrust into the middle of unspeakable tragedy. We held vigils. We did them again the next year. And the year after that.

To be clear: I was not a victim of Sandy Hook, but it took on a special significance in my consciousness and every year in mid-December I find myself mentally back in that place, with new meaning each time. I watch students I have worked with over the years grow up and think “those kids at Sandy Hook should have gotten this chance.” They would be wrapping up their first semesters of college now. I see Christmas lights and gifts under trees and think “those families will always experience this time of year that is supposed to be joy and light as a reminder of terror and death.” I have kids of my own now who are about the same age as the victims were, and so the anniversary hits even more close to the very core of my being. And then twelve years almost to the day later, another shooting in Madison, another set of families who will forever experience sadness when this season rolls around.

I don’t have a conclusion to this. I can’t tie it up in a nice bow. It’s an open wound that we have collectively chosen should be left to fester. And I will never understand that choice. I will never have sympathy for anyone who chooses political power at the price of children’s lives. I’m fairly certain there’s a ring of hell dedicated specifically to that, occupied by the likes of King Herrod from the Christmas story. I will never be convinced that an amendment premised on the need for maintaining a “well-regulated militia” is somehow meant to undergird un-regulated chaos and home-grown terror. I will never accept that this is the price of freedom or that it has to be this way. It doesn’t, that’s non-sense. I will always feel a deep suspicion towards those who spout “conspiracy theories” because of the way the Newtown families were treated.

I found this article in @TheAtlantic helpful. This is not happy Christmas reading. But in its way it fits into the advent season’s story arc: the deep longing for healing and peace and the journey it takes to get there.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/sandy-hook-parents-twelve-years/680994/

#Newtown #sandyhook #2A #advent #christmas

https://www.europesays.com/1705587/ Ukrainian soldier of the “Combat Action” unit holds his trench with a MG-3 while beeing under enemy fire. December 2024 #Ukraine #UkraineWar #UkraineWarVideoReport

https://www.europesays.com/1705593/ Ukrainian forces down 57 enemy drones overnight, 56 veer off course #ConflictInUkraine #Ukraine #UkraineConflict #Ukrainian #UkrainianConflict

https://www.europesays.com/1705581/ James Bond Producer Slams Amazon As ‘F**king Idiots’: Report #Entertainment #UnitedStates

https://www.europesays.com/1705585/ Five killed in Ukrainian Strike on Rylsk Town in Russia After Missile Attack on Kyiv #News #WorldNews

https://www.europesays.com/1705577/ «Ça me met en colère» : ces jeunes culpabilisés de prendre l’avion à Noël face à la flambée des prix du train #Actualités #france #LActualitéAuQuotidien #L'actualitéAuQuotidien

https://www.europesays.com/1705583/ Trump Wanted Shutdown to Happen on Biden’s Watch, Not His #Politics #U.S.Politics #UnitedStates

https://www.europesays.com/1705575/ Je te laisse choisir la couleur. #france #Memes #rance

https://www.europesays.com/1705579/ Happy nativity scene #CasualUK #UnitedKingdom

https://www.europesays.com/1705573/ Derehams riot 1989 #England #UnitedKingdom

Children march on the Capitol to ask: When will adults act to protect them from gun violence? | News From The States

https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/children-march-capitol-ask-when-will-adults-act-protect-them-gun-violence

So the shutdown was averted, which of course was a relief for many people who need the funds, but I question whether it made sense politically for the Dems to save the Rs. If a shutdown had happened, it would have been the Rs along with Trump and Musk to blame.

Musk is really the power now. Johnson said he spoke to Musk ahead of the vote Friday and they talked about the “extraordinary challenges of this job.”

Another friend of Russia in the EU, hoping that Ukraine will keep Russian gas flowing to his country when the transit agreement ends, 10 days from now. .
https://kyivindependent.com/orban-says-hungary-proposing-trick-to-keep-russian-gas-shipments-via-ukraine/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

By far the biggest creep/threat to democracy so far..

https://www.wonkette.com/p/elon-musk-boosting-german-fascists

Trump’s ‘stunningly unqualified’ diplomatic team shapes up at breakneck speed | Trump administration | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/trump-team-cabinet

Global Temperature | Vital Signs – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

https://archive.is/Og7h8 #climate

The Keeling Curve Hits 420 PPM | The Keeling Curve

https://archive.is/HjEut #climate

Understanding long-term climate and CO2 change | Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

https://archive.ph/4RESr #climate

Milankovitch (Orbital) Cycles and Their Role in Earth's Climate - NASA Science

https://archive.ph/OUDi8 #climate

Happy Solstice all ye citizens of the Fedi! 🌞✌️

tbh we shouldn't have even let the web get to a stage where an ad blocker was necessary just to browse it. what were we thinking

Fact brief - Are we heading into an 'ice age'? #climate

https://skepticalscience.com/fact-brief-iceage.html

Two Russian airports suspend flights after Ukrainian drones target Kazan, media, officials report https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-drones-hit-residential-industrial-building-in-russias-tatarstan-oblast-media-report/ #Ukraine

How an Unlikely Coalition of Climate Activists and a Gas Utility Are Weaning a Boston Suburb Off #FossilFuels https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21122024/boston-suburb-taps-geothermal-energy/

How dare they indeed.

https://buff.ly/4foYj9b...

The state of things in the Trump administration. This image is real, not photoshopped.

'If Putin attacks, we need to be able to wage war,' German Defense Minister says https://kyivindependent.com/if-putin-attacks-we-need-to-be-able-to-wage-war-german-defense-minister-says/ #war

Rising Voices: Listening to the world on its own terms https://globalvoices.org/2024/12/21/rising-voices-listening-to-the-world-on-its-own-terms/

Death Of A Forum: How The UK’s Online Safety Act Is Killing Communities

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/20/death-of-a-forum-how-the-uks-online-safety-act-is-killing-communities/