Earlier this evening, after dinner, my wife and I finally sat our 6-year old son down and told him, as carefully as we could, about the Sandy Hook massacre.
We asked him if he had any questions, and he only had one:
What were their names?
Which, if you think about it, is the single most important question he could have asked.
Equally significant: He didn't ask the name of the murderer, which is fine with me.
Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Olivia Engel, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Emilie Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Madeleine Hsu, 6
Catherine Hubbard, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Allison Wyatt, 6
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Lauren Rousseau, 30
Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47
Victoria Soto, 27
Rachel D'Avino, 29
Mary Sherlach, 56