Payment for Pain

I am sickened by the Alex Jones “punishment”, the demand by the Sandy Hook families for a huge punitive judgement.

Go ahead, call me all the names you want because you think my first sentence is one supporting Alex Jones. Are you done? Well, you’re wrong.

No, I’m sickened because I was once awarded a settlement for a family member being severely injured. That was many years ago and I still remember the nausea-generating feeling of receiving money because of something horrible happening to a family member.

Alex Jones won’t be ruined by this. He’ll just build something new, recreate his “Infowars” under some other name, and while he might be tempered in his commentary as a result, he’ll move on.

Will they? Will the families? Will this monetary judgement assuage their hurt and their anger? Will it help them “move on”?

I doubt it. The lawyers will get rich and move to the next case. But those who lost children? It won’t ease the pain.

I gave whatever monies I received to charities. I couldn’t keep it. I couldn’t imagine spending monies gained because my loved one suffered. Maybe that’s just me. But, I have a feeling it’ll be those parents too, who in the quiet moments enjoying their newfound richness, will still yearn for the return of their child. I have a feeling in the quiet moments, they’d give it all back for more time with their loved one.

That’s why I’m sickened. It won’t change anything at all. The lawyers will be a bit richer, but the parents? They’ll cry for years and years, probably their entire lives, just as I cry writing this so many years later.