At a Christmas brunch in downtown Buffalo, N.Y. this morning, a
woman I had just met asked me if I grew up anywhere in the area.
“No. I’m from Connecticut, actually.”
Naturally, she probed further. When I revealed I’m indeed from
Newtown it prompted an uncomfortable reaction from my entire table.
I used to like these conversations. Before Friday, I would
have told her about the serenity of a pastoral New England countryside; a relic
despite its relative proximity to New York City. I would have told her about
how we were a Tory town during Revolutionary times and how we invented Scrabble
and how we still don’t allow fast food chains within the town limits. Despite
trying, I wouldn’t have done justice to the irrevocable sense of community that
binds Newtown.
Before Friday, it was my town. And it was my story to tell.
But like a former classmate so eloquently wrote, Newtown doesn’t belong to us anymore.
The town and its story belong to the world now. It belongs
to parents and teachers and students. It belongs to concerned citizens everywhere
to serve as a sad reminder of the striking imperfections of the human race.
One of the biggest problems is that we can’t understand
this. Debating gun control and mental health issues don’t help much. We can’t
even pretend to comprehend what was going on in Adam Lanza’s head that
compelled him to do this. And because we can’t understand it, we don’t know how
to prevent it. We’re vulnerable and exposed.
Yet emerging from this is an unfamiliar sense of comfort and
joy. It started with the outpouring of concern and support right here in
Newtown. But it didn’t stop there. Dozens of charities and awareness groups are
established and thriving, just forty-eight hours after the tragedy. People all
over the world have adopted us during our greatest time of need. They’ve propped us up and, in many ways, become one of us. We may not realize it, but we have new neighbors now.
So allow me to act on behalf of my beloved hometown and
welcome you all with open arms. There are a few more things you should know
about us, though. First, we don’t need to come together because we already are
together. Also, despite all we’ve lost, we’ve already won. We won by not
reacting with hate or retaliation, but with love. We won because the fate of
these twenty-six victims has reminded us of the most important things in life.
And today, somehow, we are better people and this is a better place.
But much of the hope we feel today is because of you, people
all over the world. You walked right in and shouldered the burden with us. You
reminded us that we’re not alone. And you made sure that overwhelming good
might come out of this.
From the bottom of our hearts: thank you.
Maybe Newtown wasn’t just our town after all.
