Sandy Hook Elementary Massacre

So the tragedy yesterday at Sandy Hook Elementary on Newtown, Connecticut has had me going through a variety of emotions that I have not felt since 9/11 or when I was first diagnosed with HIV.  
No...I take that back.  The degree of emotions I felt yesterday went far down below the level of heartsickness than either 9/11 or my HIV diagnosis.  I mean, who kills their mother and then makes a conscious decision to go kill the most innocent of our society?  Who does that and why?

Unfortunately, there will probably never be an answer to those questions, which in itself is another tragedy in a long list of sadness in these past 24 hours.  

 What I do know for sure is that we as a society can never ever go back to the way things were before.  There must now be a definitive and actionable movement towards a society where guns no longer are freely available.  
We must move towards a fuller awareness of mental illness and also lobby the government to fund mental health care in much the same way as medical care is to be soon available.  Mental health care can no longer be an addendum to insurance; seeking care for mental illness can no longer be an elective, it must now be a priority.  

We must be able to spot within our society those traits and behaviors that indicate a person is in crisis or needs help.  We must do for mental health in this country what has been done to increase awareness of terrorism.  Hell, if a person of Middle Eastern descent sneezes on an airplane then the plane is landed and that person is “questioned”.  We must have the same awareness of the mentally ill.  No mental illness hides in secret, there must surely be warning signs that can be discerned.

I know this post really does not have anything to do with HIV, and I know it is outside of the scope of my intentions for this blog.  But it is important to me all the same, and I feel like I must explore my feelings on yesterday's massacre.
Please follow me on Twitter @jjemcdonald.

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