It was April 20, 1999 when I received a terrified call from my mother, “Is Sean at school” she asked on the verge of tears. “Yes,” I said, “What’s wrong”? Barely able to speak through her sobs, she told be that there where two gunmen holding children hostage in a high school in Denver. There was no word yet on which high school. My son was in class that day, in a high school in Denver.

I will never forget the horrible fear that ripped through my body at that moment. I broke into a meeting to pull out another mother of a child who was also in a high school in Denver. I will never forget the terror in her eyes as I told her what was happening.

I ran to my car with tears streaming down my face, only hearing on the radio fifteen minutes in to the drive that the gunmen were at Columbine High School, not Regis where my son attended. I kept driving towards the school, crying now not out of fear for my son’s life, but for the children who I was now hearing had been shot and for their families. It was one of the most terrifying days of my life and it took me days to have the courage to let my son go back to school.

Today is another sad day for Colorado and the country. Once again, violence has reined on our children and loved ones.

This is a time of sadness, grief and mourning the innocent that were lost at the hand of a desperately disturbed man, a man with a gun.

With the media and politicians leading the way, there will be vigorous debates and disagreements and a rush to place blame, but sadly, there will not be a quick solution to the violence that permeates our society.

Can we not have those ego driven conversations today? Instead, can we have sympathy, compassion, prayers and peace for those who have and will suffer as a result of this tragedy?

Be silent for a moment, be with the families who have lost loved ones, give gratitude and bless the souls who have departed and pray for the healing of the wounded, and for a humanity based on love, not fear.

Peace & Love…Eva