A NOTE FROM WRITER PAM MEISTER, MY FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR IN NEWTOWN
Today was the first day I cried since Friday – I tend to avoid TV news at the best of times, so I have missed much of the hooplah and media frenzy to get the latest “scoop.” Also, because I live on the other side of town, I have missed many (but not all) of the traffic snarls. But today, Jen missed the bus and I had to bring her to the high school. Just seeing a “lot full” sign at the end of the driveway – presumably to keep nosy reporters out – and policemen volunteering their services from as far away from Norwalk made me lose it for just a moment.
Our quiet little town was not only rocked by an event past our wildest imaginations, but then invaded by media who, when all the dust has settled, will move on to the next tragic event to exploit. I will be glad when they are gone – I actually flipped off a news truck today. Tacky, I know, but I couldn’t help it. (I don’t think they saw me anyway).
Please go away. Please stop cold calling my friends who live in Sandy Hook for potential news nuggets. Please stop harassing people like my mother as they leave funerals. Please stop parking on people’s lawns without permission. Please just…stop. For those of us who even have the heart to celebrate Christmas, it will be a lot easier when you are gone. Will you spare a thought for us in six months? Because we’ll still be here. This is our home, and at this point you are just interlopers looking to fill air time and column space. When the public’s “right to know” trumps common decency (like snapping pictures of people in their homes using a telephoto lens, like I saw in the Daily News), you have gone too far.
Sorry. Rant over. Carry on.
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