We Are Broken...

(Originally published at Dad-O-Matic on Friday, December 14, 2012)

We are broken.

There is no other way to explain it.  As parents it is our innate need, our deepest mission in life, to provide for our children.  To keep them safe.  To raise them in a better world than we were raised in...

But it is not a better world.

When I went to elementary school (often walking or riding a bicycle) my parents KNEW I was safe.  The worst kids in the neighborhood - the WORST - maybe smoked a lot of pot and carried a knife.  They did not have guns.

As an elementary school student in Queens, NY I went places and did things UNSUPERVISED that we would NEVER allow our kids to do today, in this world.  In the world WE created.

Something is broken.

We are broken.

WE need to fix it.

We need to restore our faith in each other and our kids' faith in us and in others that CHILDREN are precious.  That WE are precious.  That they live in world that is better and safer than the world their parents grew up in.  That's the way it is supposed to be, isn't it?

Somehow it broke.

My heart goes out to all those touched by today's unthinkable, unspeakable tragedy in Connecticut.  My heart goes out to all of us, for we have failed.  We have not made the world a better place for our kids.      





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