I have received some excellent and thought-provoking comments about Dora’s brief stay in respite care while I had my surgery. I will answer the questions and respond to the comments in a post in the near future … but this morning I am compelled to address yet another school shooting tragedy.

I was actually presenting a luncheon RAD workshop to over a hundred Rotary Club members at the very time the Virginia Tech shooting was occurring. Those folks returned to their jobs for the rest of the afternoon and sadly, everything I had just said was reinforced in the craziness of that campus shooting.

Now here we go again. I heard one of many news commentators (or perhaps it was a call-in guest) wonder why these kids and young adults who are so emotionally disturbed did not receive or respond to mental health intervention. Well, perhaps that is because there was no appropriate intervention available, or because the child refused to do the work, or because everyone around the mentally ill person refused to acknowledge what they were seeing.

This shooting shakes me to the core for many reasons, but especially because it is the university that Kyle and Marie just graduated from last December. They spent several years there. Kyle was a TA and might know some of the victims. Marie’s cousin is attending NIU and he is a freshman. He called Marie’s aunt and uncle yesterday to tell them he was OK, but also told them four of his friends were shot.

How is a parent supposed to deal with this? We all know we can lose our lives in vehicular accidents or due to unexpected illnesses. No one wants to think about that, but we all understand that bad things happen to good people. But this rash of campus shootings … It certainly adds one more item to the lengthy plus column as to why I am homeschooling Beth right now. I know I can’t protect her indefinitely from this kind of tragedy—I can’t protect Steph who is still in college, or Marie who will soon be a classroom teacher.

I will focus on what I can do. And what I can do is mobilize folks like those of you reading this blog, and together we can raise our voices and demand the services we need … such as therapeutic respite care, which I will address again shortly. Please join me if you are comfortable in praying for the families and victims of this latest tragedy.

Incomprehensible grief

Like mother, like daughter

The needs of the many or few?

Escalation and pushing the boundaries

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