What is this World Coming To?

Nostradamus predicted that the world would end Friday, December 21. In my mind the world did end, at least as we know it, but one week early on Friday, December 14. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in my home state of Connecticut it really hit home for me.

Not only do I drive through the Newtown area twice a day in commuting to work but I have a 6 year old daughter and a 1 year old son. My wife and I are both employed as teachers. I am a tennis director and she teaches 6th grade math.

This tragedy hit very close to home with me. I know some of the impacted families and my heart goes out to every one of them.

Those twenty children and seven adults will have died in vain if we don’t change something in this world. Whether it’s gun control on semi-automatic weapons, discharging some of the best military personnel and placing them in every school under cover or revamping our health care system to identify and support the mentally ill more effectively, the world needs to be different as we know it.

Being an optimist, I see it as a new beginning. Whether we appreciate our children more, recognize our teachers better or respect our policeman and first responders, suffice is to say that our world has ended as we know it. The ancient Mayan "long count" calendar, carved in stone, which according to calculations ends on December 21, 2012, marks the end of a 5,126-year era, is where the primary reason for the world ending originated. I believe that the events of December 14th signify the beginning of the end of the world in which we knew it. We need to take active measures to make positive and productive change to the world in which we live starting now.

My thoughts and prayers are with the Newtown, CT community now and forever.