When will our children be safe?

I got a call from my friend Lovaa, in PA, yesterday. He had gone to help his Mother who was getting ready for an estate sale since his Grandmother had passed recently. His Mother wanted him and his wife to take anything they could prior to the sale. So Lovaa called his wife, who works at a children's hospital, and he was put on hold. He was on hold for a good while before someone finally picked up and told him she was really busy with the Amish children that were shot. This was the first he heard of the shooting and he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Lovaa's wife was the nurse in charge of triage on Monday. He got a few seconds to speak to her before she had to get back. They had brought in 6 of the children. He and I were discussing the situation and like the rest of the country we are in shock over these senseless events. He was prepared for her to get home late and to be upset. I asked him to give her a hug for me.

This morning I'm listening to Hot 99.5 and people are calling in. There really isn't much new information or any information at all. A fourth child died last night and people everywhere are upset. Kris from 99.5 said it best when she said, "People are just trying to make sense of this senseless act but they can't."

As I was listening to everyone calling in… Lovaa called me. I said, "I heard another one died" but what I didn't know until I got off the phone with him was a fifth child had died. The parents had them take her off the machines and medications. I don't know if this was done because she was that far gone or if it's just the way of the Amish. Lovaa told me about another girl who must have been trying to run away since she was shot in the hip, she will be ok. How ok can someone be, though, if they just saw their best friend shot in the head? When Lovaa said this I couldn't help but get chills and my eyes welled up.

These are children! What is this world coming to? I'm sure everyone has so many questions… I do. How could he shoot children when he has children of his own? So many of our questions can never be answered because those answers died with the cowardly bastard that did this.

I think about Mini Red and I feel so helpless. She goes off to school and I have to trust the system. The system that has to put metal detectors in high schools and separate the grades because children are involved with oral sex. WTF?!?!

I, for one, am at a loss over these events but I'm thankful for nurses like Lovaa's wife.

My co-worker summed it up when she said; "All you can do is pray over your children as you send them out the door."