How easily those names came to mind this week, as Santee was added to the nation's sad roll call of tragedy. It seems almost inevitable now, almost Sisyphean, a lost nation forever rolling the same rock uphill. I hate to think of it in that way, because it's such a terrible thing to happen. Yet if there is anything positive to say about something like this happening before, it is that people are out there with lanterns of experience, eager and able to light a way through the darkness. They've already been calling, school principal to school principal, mayor to mayor, parent to parent.
Time heals the wounds.
Not completely, of course. Not for those who lost loved ones. There's no getting over that. In Colorado, most of the 13 families who lost relatives in the April 1999 rampage at Columbine High School still meet monthly for potluck dinners. They get together to grieve, to share their feelings and to make sure everyone is holding up.