Is there anything to say, to write, when faced with such unbearable tragedy?

I've been online too much today watching too closely the unfolding of the Newtown tragedy. The massacre is even worse than first imagined, with a death toll of close to thirty that includes twenty children.

Twenty children.

How can anyone, anywhere be OK with twenty children dying? And more honestly, not just twenty children dying, but twenty children murdered. Murdered by a lone gunman with horrifically powerful guns.

I've read (and then read some more) about the need for greater gun control, the need for better mental health services, and about how we can all try to identify the warning signs in potential perpetrators. I've read about how schools can lock doors, install metal detectors, and have no visitor policies. I've read about why issues of school safety are why some choose to home school.

But what are we really saying by offering all of these potential solutions? Nothing, really. Just hoping against hope that there is an answer that would mean something like this won't happen again.

And while there will always be tragedy and evil in the world - it's always been there, I do believe there could be less.

I do believe there is hope, and I do believe there are solutions.

But I also believe it won't be easy.

Maybe people will decide it's time to change the gun laws, even if that means the loss of their constitutional right to bear arms.

Maybe people will decide it's time to change how schools operate, even if that means kids lose their right to attend a school free of alarms and metal detectors.

And maybe, we will all agree that whatever we lose in this process of change is meaningless when we think about today's truly unfathomable losses.

My heart and thoughts with all who are suffering. May the memory of those lost today forever be a blessing.