Snow arrived to blanket my mountainous Vermont world, and if winter follows tradition, all will stay covered until April. So what to do while a chill blows and daylight flits by in a flash? Keep your chin up and your looks fresh. Embrace the garb of the season. Toss a red scarf around your neck, a brighter hue on your lips, and head outside to revel in all nature brings your way.
I can’t pretend to have answers. But I also can’t pretend I’m not angry that our nation is still stalemated about how to respond to the massacre of 20 innocent children and their teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School two years ago in Newtown Connecticut. Looking back on that tragedy, I wonder how this lack of legislative movement for gun control is even possible. Not only have there been no advancements, but since December 14th, 20012, there have been close to 100 more school shootings. Yes, school shootings. As a teacher who enters a high school building every day, who “practices” federally mandated lock-downs, I can’t pretend not to be terrified, both for the need for this practice and for what seems to be looming, eventually, for too many more innocent children.
December 1st is World AIDS Day, and as I reflected back through the last decades, I thought, how far we have come. “AIDS has killed nearly 39 million people since it was first discovered, but new statistics show we are finally at the “tipping point” of the disease, with more people getting access to life-saving treatment than those who are newly contracting the disease. This progress has been called “the beginning of the end of AIDS” and it is critical that we continue the momentum so we can finally end the AIDS pandemic” (CNBC).
