When does the conversation begin?

During the election, I watched friends tear friends apart via social media - constantly espousing their own views, denying to hear the other side, and even claiming the right of "my page, so shut the hell up" to quash those who tried to have a reasoned debate.  I did not engage.  For the last 36 hours, I've seen the debate over treatment for mental health and over gun control both arise in almost as vehement a fashion.  I avoided it as long as I could... until a friend posed this question on Facebook:

If we didn't always say "now's not the time, we have time to fix it, let's mourn first," maybe we would have fixed the problem already (however it needs to be fixed), and THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED. The blood is on all of our hands, because of our apathy and inaction. If now's not the time to talk, when is?

This time, I answered.  I did because she didn't come at it from a specific agenda, didn't say "Why can't we control guns" or "Why can't we fix health care"; acknowledged there could be many ways to fix it...  Thought I'd share:

Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day the conversation begins.  Not the metaphorical tomorrow, but the actual day of Sunday, Dec. 16. It's not a magical date, it just gives people time.  A day to register the scope of this tragedy, to realize how it could have happened anywhere, even to them; and at the same time, to be 48 hours removed from the flurry of information assaulting them at every turn.  48 hours to decide where they really stand on the issue, and even what the issue really is.  

In my mind, it's tomorrow, while the pain is still fresh in the mind but it done slicing fresh wounds in most hearts; when the immediate reactions are still at hand, but the people having those reactions are no longer in the heat of the moment. When there's a groundswell for change and a reason that we can all get behind HAVING the discussion while respecting the community and giving them the equivalent of their moment of media silence (both online and traditional) by not pointing fingers beyond the lone shooter who did this, while they are still learning what happened to their loved ones, and the very names of the fallen.  That's when we have the conversation. Tomorrow, it begins.

 

Behind the words...

So many thoughts running through my head right now in the aftermath of the tragedy in Connecticut, and until tonight, nowhere to say them.  I try not to put politics on my Facebook feed after seeing how divisive the election season was this year....and my Twitter feed is too work related.  Which left me one other option: re-start my blog.  So I wiped the old one, and started anew.  Well, almost anew - Blogger/Google won't separate the old profile and pseudonym, so I will still be posting under an assumed name.  At least it is an appropriate one: ProducerClaire.  Claire of Assisi being the patron saint of television writers.  

This was a looong day, and I'll tackle the thoughts tomorrow, but this is a start.  Until then, I offer the words of others today - words gleaned from Twitter

RT @gregorykorte: How do you write an obituary for a 5-year-old? Then how do you write 19 more?

RT @StephenBus: 9-yr-old: "We were told to hold each others' hands & close our eyes. We opened our eyes when we were outside."

RT @danbowens: "we heard gunshots and we heard a scream on the loudspeaker" -- little girl describing the Connecticut school rampage to me earlier. painful 

RT @dianneg: #iwillnotcryonair #iwillnotcryonair 

RT @gabrielmacht: As I put my daughter to sleep tonight I mourn for the parents who won't be able to do the same because of the killings in CT. #CTShooting

RT @aftrtheshock: We can't bring back one precious child in #Newtown but we can do something loving for a child near us. Kindness fuels recovery & resilience. 

RT @rmarmstrong88: Add first responders to the list of victims.  They have to live with what they saw.  #PrayForNewtown