Prayers for our Friends In CT

[vnmsss]

In deepest sadness for the tragic loss of precious lives in Connecticut today....Absolutely devastating news......I would ask all of our Factory Five Racing family to join in prayers for the families at this unimagineably difficult time......

Karen

[Vman7]

Yes, keep all these people in our prayers!

As of late 26 dead, 18 children among the 26, as reported on FOXNews TV at around 1PM

Here is a link to the headline news at FOXNews

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/14/police-respond-to-shooting-at-connecticut-elementary-school/

[bil1024]

Prayers sent

[riptide motorsport]

Prayers offered.

[metalmaker12]

I am without words, this is a very dark act, I am deeply upset for all those families. This has to be prevented. My prayers go out forever

[frankeeski]

I had to un-friend someone on facebook today who is also a member here. I didn't want to, but I just don't believe that a tragedy in which 27 people lost their lives, 20 being children, is a good time to be preaching about gun violence. Making a statement about political views is not going to bring those victims back nor is it going to comfort any of those affected by this tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go out to the parents and families of the victims and to the first responders and their families as well. This is something no one should ever have to experience. God Bless them all

[Movieman]

I'm a gun owner, have been for almost 40 years but this isn't about guns. It's about an insane person killing 20 innocent kids and 6 teachers.
I, like most of you, was first shocked,then came the tears and then the anger.
As adults we have the option of either arming ourselves or not but our kids don't have that option and when we send them to school it is OUR responsibility to ensure their safety.
I see only one option and that is metal detectors and armed police at each and every school.
My kids are grown, aged 24 and 32 but these kids are OUR kids and as a society we need to protect them from the bad people that exist in this world.
Politicians will talk this to death and speak of the "whys" this person did what he did but there are many of these people out there and if we do not act then WE are responsible the next time this happens.
My feelings are that if everyone called their elected officials and demanded armed police at all schools it would be done.
If they refuse threaten them with recall elections and tell them that YOUR children won't be attending school until it is a safe secure location.
End of rant.

[AJ Roadster NJ]

We have close friends in Newtown with triplet daughters that attend Sandy Hook Elementary. Beth (the wife) is a volunteer assistant there every day while her husband works in NYC. We just spent the day with them last Saturday, they came down to Jersey for a visit.

None of the girls nor Beth was injured, at least physically. Beth herded her charges into the library and huddled with them to shield them. She is beside herself with grief. She also is suffering, I think, from 'survivor's syndrome,' beating herself up for not doing something to stop the massacre. There was, of course, nothing she could have done against that kind of firepower. She has lost a number of close adult friends that she knew well, worked with every day, and socialized with. On top of that, they have so many friends and neighbors that have lost an innocent child of 6 or 7 years old. Right now, it is just too much for Beth to bear, and yet I also recognize that their 'secondary' loss pales in comparison to the losses of all those families that lost a child or spouse.

I have to compose myself even as I write this, it is just so devastating.

So what do we do? Here's what we do: we we should stop giving these pieces of human excrement their 15 minutes of fame. Periodically, during the newscasts over the last two days, we should have been hearing something along these lines;


“The unnamed perpetrator is dead. His remains have been ground up, mixed with leftover fish carcasses, and dumped in the Atlantic. He will not have a funeral. There will be no remembrance. He did not, for all practical purposes, exist. History will not record his name.”

Do that a few times and these gloryboys will stop fantasizing about their picture in the paper with the caption, “Oh, he was SUCH a sweet boy, I can’t believe he would do this.” Screw ‘em. Don’t give them their fame, and it will stop. [This is where the left starts shouting, “But AJ, freedom of speech!!!"...and I roll my eyes in despair, understanding at last why Rome fell.]

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for all those people in affected by this horrific tragedy.

AJ

[Movieman]

AJ: I not only read your words but can feel what is in your heart.
There really aren't any words to express how I feel.
My best to you and your family and I hope that time helps mend your friends heart.

[AJ Roadster NJ]

So we made pies for the grief-stricken people of Newtown. More than TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY PIES. Piled them in a camper, duct-taped the stack, and drove them up to Newtown today (I had to work, but my wife went and is still there as I write this.)

Beth Howard, the woman in this newspaper article (http://ottumwacourier.com/local/x1951926644/Eldon-s-Pie-Lady-drives-to-Newtown-to-give-comfort-healing-and-pie), knows a neighbor of ours. When she got this strange idea (at her home in Iowa) that she needed to bring pie to Newtown, she arranged with our neighbor to make Flanders, NJ a stopover. The neighbor organized some of us on our street into a willing and productive workforce.

A bunch of us made pies straight through the weekend. We put over 30 pies through our oven on Sat/Sun, and a neighbor who has double ovens did over 60. People sent money for gas. Costco and other stores donated supplies. A local farmer asked why we needed 150 lbs of fresh Granny Smith apples, and after hearing the reply, would not take any money.

This isn't a request for help, please don't misinterpret. All is good. There's more money than expenses and Beth Howard is leaving all the extra in Newtown for a grief counseling fund.

Search on 'The World Needs More Pie' in Facebook, she is a quirky and fascinating woman and although this sounds crazy I have come to believe that pie really DOES have healing properties. It did for me. :cool: (I'm wearing an orange jacket in one of her FB photos, securing the load in the camper late last night.)

AJ

[Movieman]

AJ: We've never met and probably never will but if we could I'd give you a big hug to say thanks for this.
This insane act has effected me like 9/11 did..You sit there and watch and feel so helpless.
You can't understand the mind that would kill innocent children.
I've been around for 60 years, seen plenty of the bad side of life but this I can't get my head around.
There are no more tears left and there are times when they show these beautiful kids faces that I have to turn the channel.

[PhyrraM]

......You can't understand the mind that would kill innocent children.
I've been around for 60 years, seen plenty of the bad side of life but this I can't get my head around........

While there are thousands of variables that go into an event as terrible as what happened, you can identify two large contributors. I completely agree with what you said above.

The whole nation (world?) is obsessed with celebrity for some reason. We idolize them. We obsess over them. We even wish to be them - as evidenced by the popularity of "self-promotion" things like Facebook. Combine that with the fact the media (and our choice to watch it) has made this A-Hole a household name and topic of non-stop discussion, and it's easy to see how a distressed individual can choose to "make history" instead of seeking or accepting help.

Great work AJ. One day, I'd like to shake your hand. Thank you. You (and the Pie Lady) should be the ones on the news and the household name.

[AJ Roadster NJ]

You (and the Pie Lady) should be the ones on the news and the household name.

Funny you should mention. I have a couple of updates.

First, our friend Beth, the mother of the triplets, appears to have lost her car permanently. It was impounded as part of the crime scene the day of the shooting, and now the authorities are keeping it because it has multiple bullet holes. Don't know how that happened exactly, but it is what it is. They have to replace the car now. Don't know what insurance will do with this, and Beth's car is simply gone. That sucks.

On the news front, there must be a whole lot of reporters scrounging for tidbits of good news in Newtown. The girls set up the free pie tables at a youth center that the police had, from the beginning, labeled as "out of bounds" to the media. (The community needs a place to meet and talk without reporters sticking microphones in their faces constantly.) Nobody was in this for publicity, but still, the story spread in a kind of viral way, and now it's everywhere. Here's a few examples;


NJ Star Ledger (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/12/jersey_volunteers_iowa_baker_b.html)
CNN (http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/12/19/bringing-healing-to-newtown-one-pie-at-a-time/?hpt=hp_t2)
ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/newtown-victims-fundaising/story?id=18000977#.UNKAZ29TySo)
Middletown [CT] Press (http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2012/12/19/news/doc50d27d9dbec42278778867.txt)


AJ

[MEDIC1236]

I can't say anything but I hold my children closer and pray for those who have lost

[AJ Roadster NJ]

Now I'm reading my email and finding out that Beth Howard, the Pie Lady, was named by Z100 (NYC rock radio station) as their "Bad *** Chick of the Day." :cool: And that Brian Williams will have a piece on her tomorrow night on the news. :cool:

If you see a REALLY beautiful blond in any of the news coverage, much better looking than her years, with short(ish) hair and a Joisey accent, that would be (ahem) my wife.:rolleyes: If you see a really ugly guy with a silver crewcut, well that would be me.

[Movieman]

God bless all of you.

[Kalstar]

It is just so unfair, life's just beginning. Something must me done!!! I am Republican, own firearms myself, but I am at the point that I feel some weapons need to be restricted. It is a slippery slope, but I am just so heart broken.

Prayers go out to the victims both deceased as well as those left behind.

God speed.

[Movieman]

It is just so unfair, life's just beginning. Something must me done!!! I am Republican, own firearms myself, but I am at the point that I feel some weapons need to be restricted. It is a slippery slope, but I am just so heart broken.

Prayers go out to the victims both deceased as well as those left behind.

God speed.
Same here, I'm a Republican, own guns for 40 years and have been thru the stages of first shock then tears until I have no more then anger and then what do we do to stop this.
I have thought on this all week and heard all the arguements for all the ways people think we should proceed and I've come to the following conclusions:
1) Eliminate these "no gun" zones such as the malls,etc. All those accomplish is to tell the insane where they can go and kill with impunity.
2) Two cops or the equivilant at each and every school in the country.
3) Bulletproof glass on all entrance doors, metal detectors and photo ID's for all kids and parents of those kids and for the teachers,janitors,etc
BIG ones, like you see at major sporting events
4) As to magazine capacity, I don't think it accomplishes anything as say with a AR-15, eliminate the 30 round clips and someone carries 3-10 round clips that take what? 3 seconds to change BUT if that
makes Joe or Suzie average feel safer I won't argue the point
5) How to pay for all this as lets face it, 2 cops and your looking at close to $150-$200K/year and then the cost of the BP glass and metal detectors.
Simple solution: Eliminate foreign aid and the money is there and more than enough I think.
Heck, we send 5 billion to just Egypt and they hate us.
Tell the politicians that the safety of our children trumps the politicians need to "buy" friends across the globe.
If the politicians resist, tell them that you'll organize recall elections and put in people who actually care about our kids lives.

That's my conclusion but I also think we need to tell the ACLU to get the hell out of our lives and put GOD back into our schools and start doing what I was taught back in the 50's and thats
teach the christian principles that we all need to respect and value one another.
Sorry for the rant but in my mind these murdered children are as much ours and the ones we sired and if we don't stand up and scream for solutions and now then we are all guilty the next time this happens.

[PhyrraM]

How about...

1. Relearn how to raise children. (This is far reaching, encompassing everything from 2 income families all the way to adults who never grew up themselves)
2. Relearn how to identify when a child has a problem. (Again very multifaceted, how many times does a modern parent automatically side with their kid when something is pointed out about him/her?)
3. Relearn how to treat a child once an issue has been identified. (It seems that EVERYTHING has changed here, from how counseling is handled to the fact that you can't "bring out the belt" anymore.)

Unless that A-hole was literally raised in a closet, there were dozens of adults who could have said or done something to change a course he was on. 50 years ago, somebody would have. When I was a kid, everyone on the whole damn block had free reign to pull me along by the ear and drag me to my dad where I had to tell him what I had done. I learned. We all did. Today it seems all we get is "It's not my place", "I just can't handle him", "Somebody needs to teach him a lesson (but not me)", and "I hope he doesn't kill somebody one day".

I'm not discounting what this di**head did. It's all his fault and nobody should lessen that. But also, the community failed the community. Somebody saw in him that this was possible, likely even at a much younger age. But we live during a time where we are discouraged from doing anything about it - or too lazy.

[bwwooster]

AJ:

Thanks for doing the pie thing for those locals. When monsters walk the earth, it's easy to lose your faith in humanity. Gestures such as yours can help restore it.