Dawson College, terribly terribly sad

This is a terrible story. It completely freaks me out because I still remember the shooting at Concordia back when I was in University and the Montreal Massacre at L'Ecole Polytechnique. WTF is wrong with these crazy gunmen?

I just don't understand how this can happen in Canada. I mean, it's not just guns, although they make it easier for these nutjobs to inflict damage quickly. Marc Lepine in 89 used a knife after his gun ran out. And he didn't stop even then.

After Columbine, people ran around desperately trying to come up with a simple answer, like saying ADD meds caused it, except that lots of kids do this when they take nothing at all or thinging gun control would've fixed it. Well lots of kids use knives and bombs when they do these terrible things, and we have lots of gun control, and it happens here too.

I just remember reading Barbara Coloroso, in her book, "Parenting with Wit and Wisdom in times of Chaos and Loss," and in interviews, she talked about how the kids who used the guns had been troubled for a long, long time. (They were from her hometown, her very neighbourhood) She thought that many people could've helped these kids at different times and in different ways, but that no one really had. Somehow, they slipped through the cracks, and the result was tragedy.

I wonder if the gunmen who are hurting people today, right now, could've have been stopped if someone had reached out in an earlier part of their lives and done something. Maybe not big, maybe just a small kind thing and it would have made a difference. Whether it's a loner with a gun trying to get back at a bully, or a suicidal terrorist, they were all lonely sad kids at one point in the past.

Perhaps I am naive...

But the other day my guy looked over at me, and said that he believed that in a group of 100 people, there are 50 heroes. And to stand up and take action, all they needed was one person to show the way, to be the first.

So the next time I see a kid who is sad, who is troubled, I'm going to reach out and say something, anything. In my small way, I'm going to try to be that one person, cause I don't know what else to do to help, and maybe my little action will help prevent yet another Dawson College...