What price freedom?

We will hear the tragic stories. The celebrities will express their grief. The politicians will promise "never again." Experts will opine on why. News overload, a shared grief, a promise that cannot be kept, a reason we will never know. It's all just noise in the wind.

The Second Amendment was added to our Constitution to prevent the government from disarming the people. That is, after all, what the British were doing when they marched to Concord. Freedom to own and bear.

Fifty years or so ago, an enlightened people decided that those who couldn't think or act like the rest of us deserved something more than life in a state hospital. We closed the hospitals and let them live among us. Freedom to pursue happiness.

These freedoms met in the final scream of frustration of a troubled young man, diagnosed or not, as he reached the end of endurance. His mother, 20 babies and six adults who cared for them paid another installment on the price of freedom.

We are left to reach out our hands and hearts to those left with torn souls. They stare at Christmas trees. Nestled under those symbols of peace and joy are presents that will never be opened.