My heart hurts.

Today was a horrible day in the U.S. A gunman ruthlessly slaughtered eighteen children and six adults in a small elementary school in Connecticut.

I feel sick, angry, and hurt. I can’t even imagine what the families of those children (and adults) are going through right now.

This isn’t an isolated incident. In recent memory there was a mall shooting, a movie theater shooting, and a shooting a Sikh temple and many many more. They all made me feel ill and sad and angry and were all terrible and horrifying.

But this was especially disturbing.

You see, you don’t fuck with kids. Okay? These are children. Innocent kids AT SCHOOL doing what kids do. They were STOLEN from this world in a horrifying, traumatic way. It’s sickening. It’s unimaginable.

Some of the pictures coming out of Connecticut are disturbing and emotional. One in particular grabbed me: a line of children being led away from the school, eyes closed, anguish clear on their young faces.

Dear, sweet, babies, you’ve been through enough. Close your eyes so you don’t see your dead classmates as you leave the school. Close your eyes so you won’t see your dead teachers and principal. Close your ears, too, so you won’t hear the anguished screams of the parents whose children are NOT walking out of that school, who will never walk out because they are GONE FOREVER.

Close your eyes, children. Rest and recover. Our prayers are with you.

To those children whose eyes are closed forever, rest in peace, sweet babies.

Parents, adults, and citizens, OPEN your eyes and ears.

We need to do something. Tell our politicians to STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE NEXT DAMN ELECTION and take care of business.  Let’s put politics aside and meaningfully and rationally examine what brought us here: Gun laws? Lack of mental-health care due to a crumbling health care system? Underfunded schools? Social/Cultural Sickness? I DON’T KNOW the answer but let’s see if we can do something to curb mass shootings in the United State.

Work together. Heal. Demand more from Congress than partisan bickering.

But first, let’s take care of those hurting from this terrible event. Let’s find out what happened.

My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this horrible tragedy in Connecticut.