WE CAN DO BETTER

I didn’t vote for President Obama. In either election. I wasn’t convinced he was the right man for the job. I have never stated that publicly. I feel this needs to be said. I also own two guns. I don’t do much with them. I’ve never been hunting. But I own two guns. That also needs to be said.

When those angels were taken from us at Sandy Hook, my wife was pregnant with our first child. Her pregnancy connected me to that awful day in ways it otherwise might not have. Back in those days I spent hours daydreaming about what it would be like to be a father. I wondered how it would feel to hear his cry, to touch his skin, to smell his breath. I spent hours and hours preparing to hold him, to become his father. Watching my wife carry him to term was just about the funnest thing I had ever done.

The actual birth of my son surpassed any joy I had anticipated. It was like Christmas morning on steroids with a side of double espresso. It was everything and everything and everything. Actually becoming a father was the singular greatest moment of my life.

I used to hear people talk about how having children was the greatest thing. And I believed them but I also kind of rolled my eyes. Sure sure, I thought. Kids are great. But so is staying out late and sleeping in late and having money to blow on shoes and movies and whatever. Kids are cool but so is freedom.

But then that boy came out of his mother and my life got flipped upside down. A love I had never imagined bloomed to life and I knew I’d just stumbled onto a virgin shore of unending possibility. This was my son. He was literally a part of me. He was alive.

But separate. And beautiful. And I could spend eternity watching his every move.

My friends were right. There was nothing like it.

To have a child stolen at the hands of violence is an event so horrific I actually can’t even understand it. It’s unimaginable in its abject horror. I think only those who have experienced it possess an actual clue as to the depths of its pain. The rest of us can only speculate.

The parents of the angels at Sandy Hook sent their babies to school. Just sent them to school. As millions of us parents do everyday. They were all supposed to come home. They were supposed to talk about what they learned and what they ate and who got in trouble and who made them laugh.

But they didn’t. They didn’t.

Because a young man who had no business near lethal weapons was able to have lethal weapons.

Those angels should never have died.

Recently the president, a man I did not vote for, did a most remarkable thing. He wants to prevent another Sandy Hook. He also wants to uphold the constitution. He simply wants to make it a little more difficult for people who might commit atrocious acts of violence to get their hands on guns.

I applaud him. I hope the country applauds him and supports him.

I own guns. I believe in the second amendment. I didn’t vote for this president. But I admire the hell out of him.

But mostly I’m praying for those parents up in Newtown. May they be the last community of parents to bear this cross.

Come on, America. We can do this. We can break this cycle. We can protect our children. We can do better. We can be better.

Forget your politics. Think about those precious angels and say a prayer for them today. May light perpetual shine forever upon them.