On a Friday morning, thirteen years ago, as I sat at my desk, grading final papers, I received word of a shooting in a town nearby. The first news indicated that there were multiple shooters and one or more were unaccounted for. Overhead, helicopters circled the university as ambulances whaled down the street to Danbury Hospital, located two blocks away from my office.
By day's end, this entire area was in mourning, for the beautiful town of Newtown was now in the history books, not as the idyllic southern New England town we all love and cherish around here, but in the same league with Aurora and Columbine, Colorado and scores of other towns over which this cloud of horror has shrouded. As the names became revealed to us, not one person in the area did not have some connection with the victims or their families. We're all in mourning in the Newtown-Danbury area, once given the title as the 'Safest town in the State.'
No further words will come to me. Please pray for peace, understanding and the power of love this holiday season.
Blessings,
Dr. Jeanne Iris
