God Bless Newtown, CT

I was busy yesterday with work and such, and had planned to give you a quick look forecast - until I heard about the horrific tragedy in Newtown, CT yesterday.  I was too shaken to write.  I had to step outside of work for some air as I read the details coming across on CNN.com.  Allow me to vent briefly if you will please.

Yesterday, 20 innocent children were murdered at the hands of a young adult that got into their Connecticut school and began shooting.  When the dust settled, the shooter, along with the kids and six other adults, was dead.  When I picked up my soon to be nine year-old little girl from her third-grade class yesterday afternoon here in Michigan at dismissal, you can bet that I hugged her very tightly and told her how much her mom and I loved her as I drove her back to her mom.

While driving, I silently gave a brief prayer of thanks that I didn't get an emergency phone call like the one that went out to the families of kids attending Sandy Hook Elementary.  I am so very thankful and happy that my daughter, in all likelihood, will be able to celebrate her 8th Christmas as a happy and healthy, rambunctious little lady.

However, my joy is tempered by the fact that a small southern New England town of about 27,000 people will now have a Christmas far different than the one they had envisioned as dawn broke on December 14th.  I am sure that many of the families who lost their precious children or loved ones probably had Christmas shopping for them already done, or had planned to put the finishing touches on that this weekend.  Rather than pulling together plans for Christmas vacation, and Christmas morning celebrations, 27 families and a town, indeed a nation, now have a different type of Christmas mourning to work with.  

We'll never know what 20 young kids would have become with time, growth, and nurturing.  We'll never know how many more lives the adults that died to protect them in that school building would have been able to shape and influence.  We may never know why all this happened.  I certainly hope that's not the case, but it is possible.

In time, our questions will hopefully be answered; our grief, sorrow, and anger will hopefully subside.  In their place, I hope, comes a resolve to make it as difficult as possible for something like this to ever happen again  in our country.  I don't know what that looks like, or the steps needed to make that happen.  I just know, that as a parent and a human being, it needs to happen.  Period.

Tomorrow is a day of rest and worship for a sizable chunk of our nation.  As we get into tomorrow, and during the run-up to Christmas, when most of us will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, please say a prayer for those touched by this senseless killing.  Please, in whatever manner and tradition you're used to, pray for the community of Newtown, for comfort during their hours of grief; for grace, to eventually accept what has occurred; and for strength, to move forward, unified, and to care for those still here.

I speak only for myself here, but I sincerely believe that God has added 26 angels to the roster.  I am sure that as time progresses they will be able to do greatness far beyond comprehension.  Thanks for reading, and God Bless Newtown, and the United States Of America.

- Forecaster Mike Estwick