We're becoming professional mourners.  We will see nothing but tributes to these lost babies who will never get a chance to grow up, and to the staff who tried to save the children.  We will see and hear and read the eulogies, the memorials, the grief, and then..the nation will take a deep breath and go on, never having honored these lives by doing anything to prevent the next tragedy.

I sobbed when I saw the sweet face of that beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed angel, who reminded me of my own girls when they were that age.  But what does my grief mean, what does any of what I feel mean if it keeps happening over and over and over again?

I will let the following, from the KC Star, and posted earlier today by MOBlue, explain (bold is mine):

The nation has a duty to protect its tiniest, most vulnerable citizens. Our children.

America is failing at this task, and the proof is lying in Connecticut morgues.

Don't dare forget the children of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Every last one of the 20 precious souls who died Friday deserves a more pertinent and lasting memorial than the shock of a nation reeling.

They deserve deep, contemplative thought and action. They deserve changes in how we manage the right to own weaponry in America.

If the slaughter of a classroom of children isn't enough to press for reasonable gun control, then nothing will help America. We might as well hand out NRA memberships with birth certificates.

Link

You should read the whole thing, because when Mary Sanchez says,

The nation soon will be familiar with the faces and too-brief life stories of these youngsters. The sports they played. The games they enjoyed, their favorite colors and classes. Maybe coveted snacks their mothers packed for their lunches Friday.

Gone are their futures: their joy at presents and family on Christmas morning, high school and college, the effect they could have had on society as mothers and fathers and the careers of adulthood.

she's expressing what I'm feeling.  What many of us are feeling.  

The teachers really were heroic in this instance, as were the store employees at the Clackamas Town Center shootings earlier this week (I live in Portland so this was very close).

It seems that both the Newtown School and Clackamas Town Center were well prepared for lockdowns as they had practiced for just such an event.  First responders in each case were wonderful as well.

In Clackamas, there are many stories as well of heroic acts by shoppers.  For example, when the shooting started, one man saw a family (father, pregnant wife, and a small child).  This man rushed to pick up and carry the pregnant woman so the father could carry his child, and they were all able to exit the mall safely.  Also, citizens of Portland and the surrounding area have been heavily frequenting the mall after several days of closure...  not letting the incident stop them.

For Newtown, I have seen how thankful so many parents are for how the teachers did their best to protect the children, to the extent of assuring their safety after those that survived were able to leave the school, and then ensure each child was delivered to the parent.  I have heard that the principal lunged at the gunman, and lost her life while doing so.  I have heard of the 27-yr-old teacher who hid her children in closets and cabinets, telling the gunman they were in the gymnasium, only to be killed as a result (yet all of her students survived).