What a waste

I have a long work weekend ahead of me, it will be midnight at least by the time I get home tonight, and tomorrow I must be at work a little before eight AM to start a shift that lasts until midnight once more, so I am writing a post or two in advance so I can simply add any final thoughts and then hit "publish" before I crash. This will likely not be up to date.

Stories of heroism coming out of UCC so far, teachers and students both sacrificing, knowingly, in an attempt to save their friends and students. You hear stuff like this every time we have one of these shootings, and it is unspeakably awful that we live in a world where that is a phrase I can use. In times of crisis a not insignificant number of people go towards danger and try to help, the most powerful images for me from events like 9/11 or the Boston marathon bombing are those of first responders heading towards danger, instantly and without hesitation.
There is a level of bravery there that I don't know if I would be capable of, and they have my highest respect, but what strikes me more is stories about people who aren't trained to go into danger.

Teachers, faculty, and students at schools of all types aren't supposed to have to take a bullet for their fellow humans, and every single time we see this happen to our country, we hear stories of people doing just that, sometimes they survive it, and in those cases they almost always say that they didn't even have to think about it.

What a waste that we live in a world were we need acts of good like that, we are throwing the lives of our best at a problem that should never have been allowed to exist in the first place. How depressing that these stories are commonplace.