#SandyHook

NY Giants tribute to Sandy Hook Elementary School on their helmets

For my research paper this semester I wrote about gun control in college campuses and how the legalization of guns brings many consequences to society. In the process I learnt about the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. Having to write about the tragedy made writing the paper that much harder.

I feel bad for not praying that it wouldn't happen again.

The worst thing about Sandy Hook is not about the deceased. It's the people who have to live with the tragedy The schoolteachers who have to go back to work. The parents who lost their children and are afraid to let the others go. The kids who had to see their friends die with their own eyes. You can't really justify pitying the dead; those who live with what happened have it worse.

But I'm not one to comment, I can't relate. I lost a friend* when I was a senior in high school, yet his death - as tragic as it was - cannot be compared with the maliciousness of a school shooting. The emotional burden is much, much worse.

And I feel sorry for Mr. Obama. Watching him on the news, I could see the emotional burden he is carrying after having to deal with so many shootings and killings, each one happening so soon after the one before. Maybe now they'll be some sort of gun control. But honestly, I really doubt it.

Nevertheless, these things happen everyday. Not just recently, mind you.

You cannot escape the fact that thousands upon thousands of innocent people both young and old have died in Gaza. Don't try to find a difference between what happened at Sandy Hook to what is happening in Palestine. Nobody has a death wish. I don't wish at all to get political or spark debate, but I wouldn't be human if I'm to ignore this fact.

Yet Sandy Hook still remains a terrible tragedy no matter what. My prayers go out to the deceased, and  more importantly the living who are shadowed by the trauma.

*Al-fatihah to my friend Engku who passed away sooner than anyone could have hoped