Help By Jack Schimmelman

He was sick in Connecticut. He had a personality disorder. He was brilliant and that is why he killed. Oh. Children cease to exist. A child waves his magic wand and classmates disappear under a blanket of fire. We wring our hands. Our President cries on television, we scream online, and we do nothing. We always do nothing. This is the real problem. We are the real problem. If we had the will, passion and focus, we could force Congress to enact true gun control. It wouldnt matter how much money the National Rifle Association threw at greedy old men (and women). There is one thing that all members of Congress want and that is to be reelected. We are more than 300,000,000 strong. Some of us think that a handgun is a sign of power. That is also a problem. We are a nation that has been rendered impotent. We wait for ineffectual politicians to bring us back from the edge of social ruin. Why wait? It is our demise they ignore. Who are we who yearn for a civil, kind society? We are parents, children, siblings, grandparents. Where are we? We are everywhere. The media makes money off of tragedy. This killing is on cable news 24/7. They seek to invade the privacy of victims relatives. They ache for that one tearful moment. They capture it. We watch entranced and continue paralyzed. We cluck our tongues. Stop clucking. Youll wake the neighbors. Wake up! We are hypnotized by violence. We watch it with our popcorn and somehow we are vicariously satisfied. I remember a time when most films were about substance. Those days have died as we choke under an inferno of hate. So, where do we start? We start where we must. With ourselves. At home. We help each other begin an empowered journey. We listen. We listen to those who are afraid of having their guns taken away by the African American in the White House. Despite that fear, our country is a kind, charitable culture. In times of crisis we help not only each other, but also those in other places on the globe. We aid those who suffer. We suffer. We are ailing from the prospect of violence in our daily lives. It is not only in our cities, it is everywhere. We are the ones crying. We are off-camera. We are the ones who must do something. Begin. Rosa Parks could not have conceived that just 8 years after she refused to move from her seat on the bus that a half million people would show up on the Washington Mall to change history. She could not have foreseen

a brilliant young minister who would go on to inspire the world. One, whose life was truncated by a gun. If there are just you, then do something creative. Make a public statement. Put your soul into it. We must halt the splattering of blood, the very young, old and everyone in between. We want hope? Then we must change. Change labors to birth hope. Open our hearts and we will be guided to do what is loving and necessary. Begin the conversation. We must. Grieve. Speak. Do. The second amendment was never meant to kill children.