Words seem obscene in the face of the Newtown shootings. I really don't want to talk about it right now. All I really want to do is run to my children's classrooms to make sure they're OK and hug them very, very tightly. Even contemplating the pain the parents must be in who have lost a child, any child in any way, but especially in this way causes my brain to freeze up. And then there are the wounded and the wider circles of trauma. No words will suffice.
But words are all I have at the moment. Once the awful details emerge, I suppose we'll have many heartfelt and proper words about the need for gun control as well as the bankrupt (but very well-funded) words on the other side, a zombified mashup of bad constitutional law and fantasies of gun-toting protectors. What we need tied to our words is actions, at long last.
And, for G-d's sake, what we don't need is more statistics where there used to be children that prove again, yet again why we need better and better-enforced gun control laws. More of that would be the most obscene thing of all. I just wish I had more faith that that obscenity will be avoided.