The Shooting

I was in kindergarten when we had our first lockdown drill at Skyview Elementary. My teacher, Mrs. Doenier, explained that lockdown drills were a lot like hide-and-seek, except in this case, being found resulted in getting hurt, not tagged. She showed us where to hide: under her desk, behind the cubbies, even in the closet. It wasn't long after the first lockdown drill of the year that the World Trade Center was attacked. I remember sitting on the rug, staring up at Mrs. Doenier's TV as the towers fell down again and again and again. I remember thinking it was a war movie. It wasn't.

When I got a little older and understood what happened on 9/11, I found myself wondering why somebody would purposely steer an airplane into a building with the intent of killing people. The complete senselessness of the act scared me and brought out my keen, childish sense of injustice. It was then I realized what people meant when they used the word "Terrorism"-- it is an act of violence meant to scare people. When grown-ups get scared, you should be worried.

By that fourth grade definition, what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was an act of terrorism. Actually, it was more than that. What the shooter did was something so profoundly, despicably, disgustingly evil that I'm not sure even Shakespeare could have invented a word for it. I can never see the point of people going into a school to shoot kids, as with Columbine High School in 1999. But there's something about the fact that it was an elementary school that makes this particularly disturbing.

Online, the names of the twenty-six people that were killed have recently been released.

Twenty of those names belonged to six and seven-year-olds.

Jack Pinto, one of the children killed, was a fan of the New York Giants. Victor Cruz wore the boy's name on his cleats and gloves for his game that weekend.

Olivia Engel, a six-year-old who was killed, was a Daisy Girl Scout.

A little boy named Daniel Barden, who was a victim of the shooting, woke up early and played foosball with his mom that morning. He won. The score was ten to eight.

Jessica Rekos was as horse crazy as my own little sister. She asked Santa for a cowgirl outfit. Her parents had promised to get her a horse when she turned ten.

Noah Pozner had a twin sister who was not killed. How are his parents supposed to explain this to her?

These kids were supposed to have a lifetime ahead of them.

The other names belong to teachers who tried to protect their students.

Victoria Soto, aged 27, used herself as a human shield to protect her students.

One of those teachers herded her students into a closet to hide. The shooter confronted her once the children were hidden. The teacher told the shooter that all of her students were in the gym. She was killed, but her students are safe.

A kindergarten teacher close to the classroom where the massacre began huddled her students into a corner. Since the gunshots frightened the children, she read to them until they were able to be evacuated.

Another teacher found some kids in the hallway. She took them to a bathroom, locked the door, and helped the children hide in the stalls.

The victims weren't shot once, but multiple times. One teacher said she heard at least a hundred rounds while she hid in an office where she had been having a meeting.

All of these kids and teachers dead, and the police haven't found a motive yet. Because what could motivate someone to do this?

Worse, the infamous Westboro Baptist Church announced its intentions to picket at the funerals of these kids and teachers. They wanted to "sing praise to God" for "executing judgement" on America and its sinful ways. Right.

A group of hackers called Anonymous (who, while they have noble intentions, seem to think they are at the center of a crappy sci-fi novel) countered Westboro by hacking into their website, tacking over a prominent church member's twitter feed, and publishing not only various church members' personal information, but also a petition from the Whitehouse to have them legally declared a hate group. Maybe it will be enough.

I think my nine-year-old self's definition of terrorism stands in this case. Look at this mess. Look at this horrible, horrible thing and draw your own conclusions.