General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFor the younger members of DU, this is what it felt like when JFK was killed.
I have been feeling this since Friday afternoon.
A senseless killing.
The tears will start soon.
A for everyone here.
I am not one for crying but this is really getting to me.
Peace to the family and friends who lost loved ones on Friday.
PCIntern
(25,553 posts)proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)I was thinking today Columbine wasn't this awful.
Yes, this is much more like when JFK died.
Floyd_Gondolli
(1,277 posts)I think the passage of time sometimes skews our perspective. At any rate, they're all awful and soul crushing in their own way.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)sad. Today is my 34th anniversary we have been married and I just can't enjoy it. Christmas isn't the same for me this year. I am going to go through the motions because I have grandkids and have to make it feel right for them.
A Brand New World
(1,119 posts)I think having this all so close to Christmas makes it even more tragic. That these are just tiny kids and should be enjoying their Santa Claus, elves & reindeers. Not dealing with tragedy. I've been severely depressed since I heard the news on Friday at noon. At first, I was shocked & now today the tears won't stop flowing. Just too much senseless killing. It's too much to absorb.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)when I heard the news of JFK's assassination, and I was devastated.
texanwitch
(18,705 posts)Everyone I know has stayed home this weekend and cried.
I was just a small child in 1963 but I do remember.
This is on the same scale of pain for the nation and world.
Bless the children and teachers who died.
RayOfHope
(1,829 posts)I'm a kindergarten teacher in a k-5 school, and as the news trickled and kept getting worse, our school staff were in absolute shock and distress. Of course the students didnt know, but when staff members passed each other in the hallway, we just started at each other unable to do anything but shake our heads. That's when I thought "I wonder if it was like this when Kennedy was shot". Now I know.
FWIW, I can't get over this either. I'm avoiding the news, but I find myself thinking of different times in the school day and where I would hide my class depending on where we would be in the building.
texanwitch
(18,705 posts)I have been thinking about it when I go out and something should happen like this.
It is something we will all be thinking about now.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)I'll never forget the look on my English teacher's face when she heard the news.
texanwitch
(18,705 posts)I was sick at home that day, heard the bad news from the tv.
Sisaruus
(718 posts)My boss was in my office; he walked in and interrupted us and said he just received a reverse 911 call that there may have been shooting in the school. From that point on, we just watched live streaming news reports on my computer.
Stuart G
(38,428 posts)It was something so unexpected. So out of the possibility it just couldn't happen...in modern 1963...no not here.........
..Not with the secret service, protection etc.
Same with Oswald being killed in front of the nation...(I didn't see it live..) couple of days later...how could it be???
Sadly, very sadly, this kind of massacre that we have just experienced...is expected.....Why?
With all those available guns..................Why Not?...
I am sorry that what I said is so awful...but..and this feels so bad..but when I saw those first pictures..
I knew...the question to me was...how many killed?...what kind of country is this?????
PennsylvaniaMatt
(966 posts)I was 6 when 9/11 happened, and I lived outside of New York City, so that effected me to an extent, but I can't remember the last time I cried at a news event. It happened when President Obama started to tear up in his speech on Friday, and then again watching NBC Nightly News when a local pastor was describing what had happened.
This story hits home to me because it happened 45 minutes from where I lived in New York for 10 years, and I know that area very well.
God bless all of those effected....
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)who placed herself in the line of fire.
I had to stop reading and listening at that point.
texanwitch
(18,705 posts)I hope I would have the same strength to do the same if I had to.
Cobalt Violet
(9,905 posts)But this feels worse than 9/11 for me.
TygrBright
(20,760 posts)We as a community (not just DU, but all Americans, heck, all humans who feel even slightly connected to us) have had a sudden, horrific psychological wound inflicted on us.
We are experiencing grief, rage, denial...
We are experiencing such horror that many of us flinch from even trying to make sense out of it, writing it off as unfathomable, anomalous-- we can't make sense of it, it only hurts to try, and attempts to analyze what happened and why only perpetuate the pain. Others of us want to make sense of it by drawing a neat "blame" box around it-- it could only happen because of "X" and if we fix "X" it can't happen again. Reality is likely somewhere in between, but it's ALL painful.
Some of us respond to this pain by reaching out, wanting to connect, to give and receive the small comfort of our common humanity and grief. Some of us respond with rage, lashing out at the things and people we perceive as blame-worthy. Some of us respond with both-- alternately or at the same time. It's an emotional overload.
We are jolted out of our assumptions about how things are supposed to work. Kids at school in a peaceful Connecticut community are supposed to be safe. And if they're not, then the world is upside-down by that much, feeding disorientation, insecurity, paranoia.
No matter how hard we try to lift ourselves out of "thinking with our feelings" right now, we just can't. Even when we think we are being rational, analytical, objective, we are still experiencing the physical effects of the shock and grief and horror, and those endocrines impact how we respond. And will continue to do so for a long time, whenever we are confronted with the horror of this event.
It's pretty common, in these uncommon times, to experience any or all of the following:
Crying jags
Bursts of anger/rage
Feeling insecure, wanting human connection
Feeling paranoid, wanting isolation
"Unexplained" fatigue (strong feelings take a physical toll)
Sleep disruptions
Persistent thoughts about the horror at seemingly random moments
Yeah. These are trauma symptoms. This is a national trauma. We have to get through it together. We can make it easier on each other by understanding, cutting each other slack, writing off those inappropriate bursts of rage or annoying clinginess as part of the process. By being kind.
Being kind is maybe the best way to process this, collectively and individually. We all need our faith in kindness reaffirmed in the wake of this horror. Be kind.
We are all human, we are all in this together.
sorrowfully,
Bright
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)When JFK was shot, we (the younger ones like I was) never thought this was even possible.. We had read about Abe Lincoln and McKinley & Garfield, but those were distant past for us, and we were "modern"..and all things were possible for us, largely due to this young exciting president we had.
We were also still very worried about imminent nuclear annihilation..
While it's abominable that innocent children were massacred, it's not the same as having the president assassinated.
texanwitch
(18,705 posts)To me it doesn't matter rather it was a president or the people who massacred.
I can't remember so many people being so upset and sad except for 9/11.
People wiil remember where they were when they heard the news.