School Shooting Rocks Journalist-Mom's Foundation

Yeah, it was me. I was that mom who took too long in the car line this afternoon. I appreciate that you didn't honk your horn or that the safety patrol didn't ask me to move along.

But after watching hours of coverage on the Newtown school shooting, I couldn't wait to put my arms around my little boy and tell him how much he is loved.

I imagine I wasn't the only parent waiting for a school to dismiss Friday afternoon whose eyes were red and whose face wore the sorrow of what has to be the most deadly school shooting in our lifetime.

As a parent, I wanted to turn the news off. To hit the mute button on the remote. To turn off, or at least away from, the computer. The journalist in me wouldn't let me do it.

I wanted to know then, and I still want to know now, why? Why would this young man kill so many innocent people, an overwhelming majority of whom were between 5 and 10 years old. Innocent children with a lifetime of hopes and dreams ahead.

My heart aches for the families who have lost a mom or a dad, a son or daughter, a brother or a sister, a grandson or a granddaughter, an aunt or uncle, a cousin or a friend.

My heart goes out to a community that I've never visited, but will not soon forget.

But it also breaks for the survivors — the school officials, the faculty, staff, students and parents — who will have to carry on, while haunted by what they saw or heard. And, they'll have to do so without answers to so many questions and explain to others what happened that day.

Then there's the law enforcement officers, public safety officials, EMS crews, 911 operators and coroners. They have a gruesome task as they are responsible for every detail of the scene, every witness statement, notifying next-of-kin and chronicling the exact moments of this tragedy. I don't want to imagine what they have seen.

I'll hug my child a little tighter tonight. I'll linger at his doorway a little longer. And I'll pray that we never experience this again.