Sometimes out of great pain comes great opportunity for change and the chance to make the world a better place. The parents of the children slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary have decided that they’re going to use their overwhelming pain and loss to work towards ensuring that no parent will ever have to bury a child as they have. They want to start a conversation about gun control as a way to honor 26 students, teachers, and administrators massacred by Adam Lanza. The goal is to foster a discussion centered on reducing violence and making communities safer, not on a specific policy goal. With all of the heated rhetoric being tossed back and forth these days (and which I confess to passionately participating in), it’s refreshing to find a group that’s interested in a very specific goal while also endeavoring to avoid divisive political debates.
Watching Rachel Maddow’s interview with David and Francine Wheeler, whose six-year-old son Ben was killed at Sandy Hook, was something I found both inspirational and heart-wrenching. I don’t have children, so I can’t begin to imagine their pain, but I admire their willingness to create something positive out of unimaginable tragedy.
You can watch the interview after the jump.
