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Hi, Newtown will always be home to me, and I feel immensely fortunate that I get to share some of the wonderful things about growing up here with my own children: long walks in the woods, summer days in the community pool, and the lighting of the Sandy Hook Village Christmas tree. But I worry about the day when my kids learn why everyone has heard of this beautiful place we love so much. Many of us who grew up in Newtown ask ourselves this question. While it's been 13 years since 20 beautiful children and six courageous educators were senselessly taken at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the memory of that horrible day remains visceral. I still struggle to find words for my grief and rage. I still think of the families who endured the agony of waiting to hear if their loved ones were safe. And I still think of the town I love struggling to hold 26 funerals in the days before Christmas as the entire world watched with broken hearts. The intervening years have not made it any easier to understand how lawmakers faced with the duty to act decided instead to walk away from legislation that would've helped ensure it could never happen again. And yes, when I hear someone say that nothing has changed since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I point to the hard-fought and meaningful progress we've made in states across the country on background checks, Red Flag laws, secure storage policies, and the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Because of the strength and perseverance of survivors and those unwilling to let such tragedies become the status quo, we have honored the lives taken with action. But alongside pride in that progress exists anger that the devastation my community experienced didn't immediately lead to stronger gun safety laws. As my son started second grade, I thought of the 20 families whose children will never have that chance. As I set my holiday table, I think of the families of the educators who died protecting those children who will once again endure empty seats at theirs. Like so many others, I'm angry that more hasn't changed, and frustrated with those who say nothing will. But most of all, I'm furious at those who have spent 2025 chipping away at the very policies we know save lives, making it more likely that other communities will experience the pain and heartbreak ours has. Yet I refuse to give up. I refuse to feel hopeless. Because of the millions of Americans who fight for a safer future. The millions of Americans who know that our families deserve better than this. The millions of Americans who believe that there is nothing normal about a country that expects its educators to sacrifice their lives at work, or asks children as young as five to practice hiding from a gunman because members of Congress are hiding from their constituents and their consciences. I know we don't have to live like this, and our loved ones sure as hell don't have to die like this, just so the gun industry and the politicians it supports can keep lining their pockets while real people suffer. So in honor of Newtown and all of the communities impacted by gun violence, join me in choosing hope. It's a radical act at a time when others want us to feel powerless and afraid. But as so many courageous survivors of gun violence have shown us, we must choose hope again and again and again. Because giving up when people's lives are on the line simply isn't an option. And we refuse to accept a world in which people fear for their lives in the places they learn, work, worship, and celebrate. Today, we can't give up hope that an America free from gun violence is possible. Join me in taking the pledge and recommitting yourself to this urgent fight in the coming year. On December 14, 2012, the world grieved with Newtown. Now we ask you to hope with us—hope that a safer future is possible, and hope that a group of nearly 11 million Americans can change the course of history by refusing to give up. We will let our anger fuel us to demand better, and we won't let anyone take away our hope. In honor of the survivors of gun violence who show us what it means to endure and to hope, I will do everything in my power to keep fighting. Will you join me? Sign the pledge to take action in 2025. Thank you for choosing hope with us, again and again. Our work has never been more important or more urgent, and together, I know that we can keep saving lives. Kaelyn Forde  |
