Sandy Hook: Does Money Really Help?

I admit, I was a little confused when people began sending money to Newtown, site of the 2012 horrific elementary school massacre.  What good does money do?  It can't bring the kids back.

But then I started to read that it could pay for counseling and therapy and perhaps with burial expenses, so I thought, okay.

Now people are arguing about it.  Guess you have to expect that, any time humans -- and cold, hard cash -- come together.

Over $10 million was raised, and let's be honest, it felt to many like the one thing you could do to try somehow to compensate these parents for their unspeakable loss.  And most likely, it felt good.

But now different groups are fighting over just how the money should be distributed, according to Peter Applebome in today's NYT.  Taking a lot of the heat is the United Way, because quite a bit of the money went to that organization, Applebome writes, and survivors told him they've seen very little or none of it and are concerned that it will be used for other things.

And while we're on the subject, Connecticut is lagging behind New York, Illinois and even Colorado, where hunting is big, in enacting gun control laws.  Applebome also reports in another story that the Connecticut legislature hopes to have something in place by April and that they want to "get it right" rather than get it fast.

So, in the end, where should money stand in a case like this?  It certainly will never take the place of the little ones those parents lost.  And yes, it will pay for counseling that may be needed, if not now, then in the future (Applebome noted that some survivors of Columbine are only now starting to feel the effects of the trauma, and that was 1999).

I guess I don't like seeing this tragedy reduced to cash.  It just doesn't seem right. They're two entirely different entities and I hate the thought that this can somehow, somehow, make up to the parents for what they have suffered, and will continue to suffer, all the rest of their days.










http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/nyregion/views-diverge-on-dispersal-of-newtown-aid.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/nyregion/connecticut-still-working-on-gun-law-frustrating-some.html?gwh=F0593B4229AF6039F159F72DC615CBF9

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