the message

The Universe first speaks in a whisper and then gets louder and louder until you can't ignore the message. 

Last Friday, 20 children and six adults were shot at Sandy Hook Elementary school. Like many of you, ever since I've heard the news, my thoughts continuously return to these families. I've wept so much over these beautiful faces, robbed of their futures. As a parent, I can't imagine the horror of running to your child's school, not knowing if they are still alive and waiting in anguish to find out.  And as time marched on, I can't imagine the horrendous task of telling these parents that they weren't one of the lucky ones going home with their children. I can't imagine parents telling their child's siblings that their big brother or little sister isn't coming home. Teachers showed remarkable heroism in the halls of Sandy Hook, locking students in closets to keep them safe, locking them in washrooms, reading to them to keep them calm, telling them they are loved. Teachers used their own bodies to shield the children from bullets and were found lying on top of children. Every story is remarkable.

America, you are in crisis. This culture of gun violence can no longer be ignored. The tipping point was Columbine, but not enough was done and now the message is louder than ever: assault weapons have no place in American households. Of the 23 richest nations in the world, the US gun related murder rate is 20 times that of the other 22. On average, the US has a mass killing every two weeks. In 2008, the US had 12,000 deaths by guns, Japan, who has the strictest control of firearms in its country, had 11 deaths. I know that guns will never be banned in the US, but at the very least they should start banning assault rifles. I am so tired of gun owners who hide behind the Second Amendment to justify owning these weapons of mass destruction. When the Second Amendment was written, muskets were in circulation, not magazine fed semi automatic rifles. I do not live in the United States (I'm Canadian), but I am so grateful that Obama was re-elected in the U.S. Not only does this prove that the NRA isn't as all powerful as they might lead you to believe, (their number one agenda was to make sure Obama didn't get re-elected, and we all know how that turned out) but it also means the right person is in office when the country needs change the most. I just hope he does everything in his power to honour these lost lives, and sends a bill to Congress. The United States also has to address the state of their mental health care for the real healing to begin. When someone, with an acute history of mental illness, can simply walk into his living room and pick up his mother's AR-15, the system is failing on so many levels.

Look at those faces above, read their biographies. The message has never been louder: This is unacceptable. These instances are occurring in epidemic proportions in the U.S. Change must come.