Fight or Flight

In the wake of the Connecticut tragedy, I’m reminded of my own childhood and my elementary school, Glenmont Elementary. In those days we performed drills as well, just like the kids did at Sandy Hook Elementary, but for a different reason. You see, I was raised in the cold war era, where the threat was a nuclear attack and so on drill days, we were told to get under our desks, the classroom door was locked, the windows locked and the shades pulled down, the classroom lights were turned off, just like at Sandy Hook. In my young mind, the thought of a gunman coming into my classroom and shooting my teacher, my classmates, would have been unfathomable.  My Kindergarten class picture sits on my bookshelf. The Year? 1964. How times have changed.

One of the little boys in the classroom in Connecticut where the gunman burst into the room and shot first his teacher and then started riddling his classmates with bullets, got up and ran right past the gunman, out into the hall, then through the shot out front door of the school and to safety. Fight or flight. This little boy knew to run, run like the wind, run like the devil was chasing him and was just about to catch him. I cannot imagine what was going through this little boy’s mind as he left his classmates behind to be slaughtered by a crazed gunman hell bent on destroying the lives of children, teachers, families and a community and then destroying himself but I’m thinking this scene and his flight from it will haunt him the rest of his life.  He will feel guilt, shame, sadness like none of us has ever known. I hope that over time, this little boy will come to realize that he was a child and there is nothing else a child can or should do in that situation but run; run to safety; run to live another day because a child that young has his whole life ahead of him. He could become president, he could become a great psychiatrist, he could be the person that solves the problems of the world and so he should run; run for his life and the life of others.

This brings to mind something I heard recently. The system in our bodies that gives us warnings is called the Adrenal system. This system reacts to stress by releasing hormones that makes us alert and reactive. One of the problems with this system though is that it doesn’t know the difference between just a regular case of nerves and a real impending disaster.   

The body can’t tell what are nerves and excitement, panic and doubt, the beginning and the end. The body just tells you to get the hell out. Sometimes you ignore it, which in many cases is the reasonable thing to do. In most situations in life most of us are not faced with a life or death situation and so we train ourselves to ignore the panic, ignore the doubt and carry on. But sometimes, we listen. You’re supposed to trust your gut, right? When your body tells you to run….run.

Something must be done, now! We can no longer as a society stand by and watch our children, teenagers, parents, friends, family, teachers be gunned down by crazed madmen with assault weapons. We are better than this. The issue must be looked at as a whole. Yes, it is a difficult one. Yes, there are people on both sides of the issue of gun control but we have to, as “reasonable” people on both sides of the issue realize that there is no reason that makes any sense at all for a normal person in our society to have weapons of military grade that belong in a war theater, in the hands of our people on the streets. No one shoots a deer with an AK47 automatic rifle. No one shoots a bird with a Glock 9. These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only. Massive killing of human beings. We as a society have to put our collective feet down to the gun manufacturers who are in bed with the gun lobby in congress and shout “NO, YOU CANNOT MAKE ANY MORE MONEY OFF THE KILLING OF INNOCENT CHILDREN AND ADULTS IN OUR COUNTRY”. We have to hold our congress people’s feet to the fire and shout “DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS, NOW!” Now is the time for us to have all the conversations surrounding this issue; from gun control to the mental health system to the security of our schools where children are supposed to be safe. Actually, the time to have had these conversations was BEFORE 20 children were shot to death from three to eleven times each, in a sleepy little picturesque town called Sandy Hook. Anyone who thinks it’s not the time to have these conversations, think about the mother and father going out to their car and removing the child seat strapped in back because they don’t need it any more, their child is dead; think about them removing the presents under the Christmas tree because the child they so lovingly picked out presents for is gone. Think about the future Christmas’ and Hanukahs of the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers and friends of these fallen little ones and adults which will forever be marred by memory that this was the time of year when they lost something most precious and they lost it because our society did nothing after Columbine, nothing after Tucson, nothing after Aurora, nothing after Fort Hood, nothing after Milwaukie. Isn’t it time NOW for us to do something? We cannot expect the government to take up this cause on their own when they are paralyzed by the gun lobby. We have to take up the cause ourselves. “We – The People”. We have to force the government to take up this cause. After 20 children between the ages of 5 and 7 lost their lives in the worst mass shooting in the history of the United States, WE HAVE to do something.  

Suggestions?

Ban gun shows – huge loophole, people purchasing guns at gun shows require no background check. 40% of guns purchased by people in the U.S. do not go through even a cursory background check

Reinstate the ban on assault weapons which expired in 2004 because the statistics show that more mass killings in which more than 2 people have been killed by these weapons since then than the total number of mass killings since 1966.

Shore up the mental health system in this country through the insurance companies, the police departments and the school systems so that kids and parents with kids who have mental issues can get the help that they need.

Now is the time to do something about this. Do not let any more people die because we could not come together as a society and make the decisions that need to be made to ensure the safety of our citizens.

My prayers go out to the families of both the victims and the survivors of this horrifying crime.