I have never been to Newtown Connecticut…Never even heard of it until last Friday.
In my mind, I can picture it now. I have no idea how accurate my mind’s eye might be but, let me share it with you.
Last Thursday…
Newtown Connecticut was the 21st century equivalent to a Norman Rockwell painting.
It’s mid-December. The colorful leave have fallen, been raked up and taken away but, the sky is a vivid blue.
Newtown, last Thursday, was a clean small town full of cheer.
It’s a place where the owners of stores and shops unlock the door in the morning and those owners work behind the counters during the day. Owners, not managers or corporate employees. Owners who hire their friend’s kids to work after school or on weekends.
Newtown Connecticut…A place where everybody in town actually KNOWS the Mayor and the Mayor knows everybody in town whether or not they voted for him.
Last Thursday, in Newtown, it didn’t matter where you went…To the market, the salon, a bakery or the gas station, the same questions would be asked.
“How are you this morning?”
“What can I get for you this afternoon?
“Are you going to the school concert tonight?”
The concert…
Everybody ALWAYS went to the Christmas concert at the school. That’s where the Sandy Hook Elementary School 4th graders performed.
When Norman Rockwell painted Saturday Evening Post covers, there may have been a few photos taken before or after such a concert but today…cell phone videos are made by almost everybody in the audience.
The audience…
Parents of the performing 4th grade students would be the bulk of the audience but, other parents and the younger students would be there too.
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders would be watching and imagining themselves on the auditorium stage in a year or two, or 3. It is a rite of passage of sorts, in Newtown, to sing in the 4th grade Christmas concert.
I would bet that Newtown Connecticut is the sort of place where people make plans for the weekend on Tuesday and take pride in getting their Christmas shopping finished early.
Last Thursday, in Newtown, grownups were ready to finish their Christmas shopping and the kids, well…They were looking forward to two things.
Snow and Christmas vacation.
I’m sure that Christmas plans were set. Folks either traveling over the hills to someone else’s house or someone was coming through the woods to their house. Christmas dinners were planned, traditions were in place, decorations hung and…
Presents carefully hidden.
Newtown Connecticut, last Thursday, was a place where small town, 21st century gossip was passed about.
“I don’t know why that old man on the corner won’t put up Christmas lights. Everybody else on the block does.”
“Scrooge.”
“Did you hear about…”
“You didn’t hear it from me but…”
“Have you seen…”
“Nancy’s boy…Adam…He’s a strange one isn’t he?”
Last Friday started like any other Friday morning in Newtown.
Kids who lived close enough walked to Sandy Hook Elementary School while others were driven. They passed the churches on the corners and were dropped off near the front doors. Parents went to work either at the store and shops in town or they commuted to New York City…An hour away.
At 9:30am…Just like every other school day, the doors were locked for the sake of safety.
Then, for the first time, I heard of Newtown Connecticut.
It was nothing like the scenes depicted by Norman Rockwell.
At first it was confusing and then…Then…It was horrific.
Nothing would ever be the same in Newtown again. If it could happen there…If THAT could happen in Newtown…What place IS safe?
What more could they have done? What more could any school do?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The principal everybody loved didn’t hide, SHE directly confronted the man with the guns and it was the last thing she ever did. Somebody had the clarity of purpose to open the intercom microphone so that every teacher in the building could here the commotion…The horror…Unfolding in the office and that act alone saved almost everybody else.
Almost.
Dear God…”almost.”
6 teachers, loved by their students, died trying to shield their students or in the act of drawing the shooter away from their class.
My God…
20 first grade students, 6 and 7 year old little boys and girls…gone.
Moms and dads, brothe
rs and sisters rushed to the school…Some found their kids being led from the building, most fount them at the nearby firehouse.
Some…Most…But not all.
Finally, the Mayor had to tell those still waiting.
If you don’t have your child now, they are still in the school and…And they’re not coming home.
No parent should ever have to hear that and no Mayor should ever, EVER have to tell them that.
By Saturday, Newtown had changed.
There were signs on the sidewalks in front of stores and shops that said, simply…Pray.
Those churches on the corners that were the places of Sunday gatherings were now filled on a Saturday afternoon.
People gathered in a park or playground and lit the candles they were going to light on Christmas Eve. This time, the candles were not for the baby Jesus…They were for THEIR babies.
It’s not just those who lost someone who don’t know what to do. Those who didn’t suffer a loss suffer too. How do THEY celebrate Christmas when their neighbor just…can’t? How can they be grateful to HAVE their kids when their friends…don’t?
My guess is that they will find a way.
It’s Newtown. They will get through this together.
Someday, I should like to visit Newtown Connecticut. Not because of what happened there.
Because of the people who live there.
People like Robbie Parker. Robbie Parker lost his 6 year old beautiful little girl, Emilie, last Friday.
Yesterday, Robbie Parker told us all about Emilie. “She was beautiful. She was blond. She was always smiling. She never missed an opportunity to draw a picture or make a card for those around her. The world is a better place 
because Emilie was in it. I’m so blessed to be her dad.”
Robbie Parker also talked about Emilie’s little sisters. “They seem to get the fact that they have somebody they’re going to miss very much.”
And Robbie Parker spoke of the shooter’s family too… “I can’t imagine how hard this experience must be for you.”
HE…Can’t imagine how hard it must be for…THEM.
Healing in Newtown Connecticut is going to take time. There will always be voids that will never be filled but, if Robbie Parker is any indication of the strength of the folk who live there and I believe he is, they will find a way through this…Together.
I can’t fathom the losses or the feeling or the things these good people are facing.
I can’t.
But I do have an idea.
3 years from now…when all those 1st grade boys and girls who have been taken would be 4th graders…
Let their moms and dads, their brothers and sisters and the families of the teachers who protected THEIR students at the ultimate cost of THEIR lives…Sing….In the 4th Grade Christmas Concert.
Let their voices stand in for the voices of lost children as THEY sing of Christmas. After all…Their Children will be in the audience sitting alongside the ve
ry reason for the concert, in Heaven.
Oh my…Wouldn’t that be something? Wouldn’t THAT be a concert of strength as voices of good rise above the actions of evil?
Perhaps, if Robbie Parker sees this article, HE can make such a concert become reality and maybe…Just maybe…Newtown Connecticut will be an even better place than it was last Thursday.
Craig Andresen
The National Patriot
Weekend Edition 12/16/12
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I’ve got nothing. I can barely see the keyboard right now.
Craig, What a fantastic sermon to the aching soul of Newton Connecticut. I cannot fathom the pain that all of those families are enduring at this time. I hope that Robbie Parker does see this article and that he does make it happen in memory of his precious little girl. God bless all of those families and may those lost souls rest in peace.