Everyone Knows Now

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It was never going to happen.
Not here. Never here.
Here was safe- here was families who had three kids who all played soccer
And had dads who coached.
Here were great schools with teachers who cared as much as parents
who said hi to their students with hugs when they saw them around town.
Here is a town where everyone knows everyone
Here was a town that was so safe we would complain it was boring.
Here was a town that we used to have to describe as being ‘about twenty minutes from Danbury’
because no one knew who we were.
Now everyone knows.
Everyone knows “We are Newtown”
Everyone knows green and white ribbons
Everyone knows my old elementary school only as police helicopter footage
a crime scene.
Everyone knows my tiny little town because we were torn apart and had to find a way to knit ourselves back together from the inside out with 26 of us gone.
Everyone knows my town because of the media circus that stayed for two weeks
Reporters that filled our one Starbucks and knocked on our front doors
News crews that pounded on our car windows when we tried to pull into school that Tuesday
Media vans that clogged our streets so we couldn't go anywhere.
We were torn apart and left reeling
There was nowhere to turn but to each other.

Everyone knows us still. There are bracelets and T-shirts and celebrity visitors and benefits.
But things are quieter.
We are moving forward, focusing on honoring and remembering and ensuring that this never happens again.
We are Newtown. We choose love.

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