Some Recent Disasters

As all of you are aware, there was a serious shooting in Newtown,
Connecticut over our break, which absolutely breaks my heart. Just the fact
that there was an unnecessary shooting makes me feel extremely sympathetic for
those who lost their loved ones, but the fact that the shooting was at an
elementary school where the children were so innocent and didn’t deserve it at
all, makes me disgusted that someone would take their lives. I was at the
airport at the time when I heard this happened. It was on all of the TV
monitors at the airport and even though the reporters had little information
about the incident at the time, they knew it was a large massacre. They had
even said that it was the second largest school shooting since the incident at
Virginia Tech. A total of 26 people (20 being children) were killed that day at
Sandy Hook Elementary. Just imagining the loss of these children’s lives makes
me reflect on how lucky I am that none of my friends or family were there. At
home, I live in a neighborhood of elementary kids and knowing that they are the
age of the kids that were in the shooting makes me put things into perspective.
These children are between the ages of 6 and 11 and the fact that 20 of these
children lost their lives breaks my heart and my prayers go out to them and
their families. President Obama quickly responded to this disaster on December
16th and had a very sympathetic speech trying to comfort the
families involved, which I greatly admire.

On a similar note, the following day, there was another
shooting at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, which is about 30 minutes from my
house. The shooter was said to have fired about 50 rounds, but luckily, nobody
was killed. There were a few individuals who were injured, but fortunately, it
didn’t completely parallel the previous day’s shooting. When I found out there
was a shooting near my house, the first thing that ran through my mind was: two
shootings in two days? What’s going on? I couldn’t believe that there were two
shootings, let alone in two days. That is completely ridiculous and
unacceptable. There should never be any shootings and lives should not be lost
over a single person’s irrationality and personal problems. I am just grateful
that both of the shooters didn’t get away. The Connecticut shooter killed
himself and the Fashion Island shooter is currently in the Orange County Jail,
so at least they are both unable to do any harm to anybody anymore. All I hope
for is that there aren’t anymore shootings in our nation’s future and that
those who were affected are able to get through this rough time.

This is a relatively depressing blog, but definitely is
something that needs to be written about, so don’t forget to follow me on
Twitter @hopeleslie15.

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Published by Leslie Kempers

Hey Everyone! My name is Leslie Kempers and I am from Santa Ana, California. I am a Senior this year and am majoring in Exercise Science so after my time here at Hope, I will be pursuing a career in physical therapy! I have previously been involved with Nykerk and CASA and am excited to see what this year has in store for me. This place has become my second home and I have cherished every moment here at Hope College. Go Dutchmen!!!