Yankees, Red Sox Step Up While Congress Cowers

It will be a long time before the tragedy at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, CT. can be thought of without feeling crushing pain and a tremendous sense of loss. It's also started a battle between gun advocates and anti-gun individuals.

I am going to only speak briefly about the political side of this - Our representatives in Washington, D.C. are an embarrassment to our country. A majority of cowards that care more for getting re-elected, having power, and taking kickbacks from groups like the National Rife Association than doing the right thing.  Congress hit a new low when it removed the assault weapons ban from a new bill that will increase the difficulty in legally obtaining a gun. Enough about those spineless bastards and scum of the earth lobbyists.

Newtown, CT is a town that probably most of us never heard of until 11 days before Christmas last year when a deranged gunmen killed six members of the faculty and 20 first grade students. A horror that words can't do justice to.

Since that awful day on December 11, many organizations and individuals have tried to help ease the pain felt by the Newtown community. The NFL honored the victims, the school's choir appeared on the Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live, and now it is MLB's turn to step up. (Shortly after the shooting, Derek Jeter called the mother of one the teachers killed.)

Since Connecticut has a large number of both Yankees and Red Sox fans, it's appropriate that the two should share in honoring the victims and their families as well as the survivors of the massacre.

From the Wall St. Journal:

Pregame ceremonies include a joint honor guard of Newtown police and firefighters, and a moment of silence at which time a list of the victims' names will be recognized on the center-field scoreboard.

"On opening day, we will reflect upon more important things and the play the game to honor the community of Newtown," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. "Since the day of the tragedy, our hearts and thoughts have been with those who were affected."

Commissioner Bud Selig has also asked all 30 teams to wear a special ribbon for their opening games. In addition to the Opening Day ceremonies, the Yankees have invited 3,000 people from Newtown to attend "Newtown Day at Yankee Stadium" on July 7.

Hopefully all of these gestures will help the town get back to some kind of normalcy, because nothing will ever be the same again.