by Greg Greenberg
12/16/2012

December 14, 2012 was a tragic day, a day full of sadness. It was a day when a school, a community, a state, a region, a country was shook to its core. It was an attack on our children, our future. Things it was not about: gun control, politics, religion, good vs. evil, bad parenting, and placing blame.

I sat and watched social media blow up with comments ranging from prayers for those affected by the tragedy to people hoping that Hell really does exist. The fact of the matter is that yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut, 28 lives ended prematurely. Yes, 28, that number includes gunman, Adam Lanza, who cut his own life short.

It saddens me that it takes a horror like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to outrage us. Bad things happen every day not only in our communities, but around the world. It saddens me that time passes and for most of us our lives just go on like it never happened, that is, until the next time it happens. For most of us, life just goes on, but for places like Newtown, Connecticut, Aurora, Colorado, the campus of Virginia Tech, Littleton, Colorado, and Lower Manhattan, life will never be the same.

We sit and ask ourselves, what we can do to help these people whose lives have been devastated in the blink of an eye. The truth is that there is nothing we can do that will ever make them whole again. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything. We as individuals are not helpless, we are not powerless. We can affect change every day in our communities.

As a young boy my mother used to drag me kicking and screaming to a soup kitchen to help feed those in need. I didn’t enjoy it, I fought it every inch of the way, but now as an adult I’m glad my mother did that. I have never forgotten those days at the soup kitchen, those people who were so happy for a warm meal and it has helped make me the man that I am today. I owe everything to my mother for that.

You want a better world for your children?? Lead by example. Teach them not to fear and to hate, but to love and to give. Maybe you can’t change the whole world, but you can change someone’s world. Every day you can strive to leave someone better off than when you encountered them that day. Change can come one person at a time, but it has to start with you.
Yesterday was about 28 lives that were ended too soon. One of those lives was
lived with hatred in his heart. All I ask is that you don’t respond with more hate.