All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

One year ago today, the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania endured a horrifying tragedy, when 10 young girls were shot. But out of that tragedy came some valuable lessons in forgiveness.

Click the video link for more.

“Sleep, baby, sleep/Your father herds the sheep/Your mother shakes a little tree/There falls down a little dream/Sleep, baby, sleep” – Amish lullaby

The news from Lancaster, Pennsylvania today offers hope and encouragement after so much suffering and heartache.

Four of the five girls injured in the terrible attack last month at Nickel Mines have returned home. One has returned to school full time. Two others are going part time. All have a long road ahead of them. Contributions for the families now total more than three million dollars.

We’ve been impressed in the past by the quiet dignity of the Amish. Our hearts go out to them.

In this season of gratitude, in this week of giving thanks, the good people of Nickel Mines have more than enough sorrows to nurse – but blessings to count, as well.

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Among the many e-mails and comments we've received, some have asked if there is any fund being set up to help the Amish.

You might want to visit this site, which has several links suggesting ways to help. The Anabaptists also have a site for donations.

At the request of the Amish, a fund has also been set up to help the wife of the gunman and their children.

If you can't spare a dollar or two, I'm sure the Amish would appreciate any prayers.

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A viewer north of the border -- a teacher at the University of Montreal, in fact -- sent us this e-mail late last night, which puts the Pennsylvania shootings in a different context. - Ed.

I have just finished watching your report of today’s shooting in a schoolroom in Pennsylvania. I commend you and your team for your sensitivity toward the victims of these shootings, their families and the Amish community. However, I was struck by your failure to situate this event in the context of the Montreal massacre of 1989, when Marc Lepine singled out and shot women university students at the Université de Montréal. Instead, you contextualized this shooting in a more limited way within “a number of shootings which have happened in the last two weeks” as well as the Columbine shootings.

U.S. news coverage of recent school shootings continues to ignore important parallels to the shooting of 25 women and 4 men at the École Polytechnique, Université de Montréal, on December 6, 1989, by Marc Lepine. Like Charles Carl Roberts IV, Lepine left a suicide message. Lepine’s message explained his actions thus “…For I have decided to send Ad Patres the feminists who have ruined my life. It has been seven years that life does not bring me any joy and being totally blase, I have decided to put an end to those viragos….Being rather retrograde by nature (except for science), the feminists always have a talent for enraging me. They want to retain the advantages of being women (e.g. cheaper insurance, extended maternity leave preceded by a preventive leave) while trying to grab those of the men...”

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Once again, the story dominating our broadcast tonight is the aftermath of yesterday's tragedy in the Amish country. Katie and Executive Producer Rome Hartman offer us a First Look. Just click on the monitor for a preview.

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Today, a very personal Notebook from Katie, who reflects on the tragedy yesterday in Pennsylvania, and her own feelings as a mother trying to talk about it with her daughters. Click the monitor to watch.

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We’ve gotten a lot of comments and feedback about last night’s “freeSpeech,” which featured a father whose son was killed at Columbine.

A lot of the comments were negative, like these:

Your free speech segment today was the biggest load of hogwash I have ever witnessed. How could you use an unspeakable tragedy to give a rightwing flat earth nut job a podium?

Tonite, you have some idiot who tragically lost his son at Columbine…he has my sympathy, but he does not deserve a spot on the Evening News to spout his political views.

This ultra right wing religious right drivel is a disgrace.

But we also received some positive feedback:

The Free Speech segment from the father of the Columbine student was one of the finest pieces I have ever heard on network news. My sincere appreciation goes to CBS for the courage to air it.

Thank you! As the mother of three children, I applaud your episode of Free Speech tonight. I’m sure that you will receive many e-mails denouncing your segment, but I appreciate hearing a “conservative” view in what can be a very liberal media…I live in the heartland of America (Kansas) and believe we all need a strong faith to get through difficult times.

I never thought I would hear such words on any network television station. He said all the things I have been thinking since the ‘60s.

Clearly, this struck a nerve.

We knew when we decided to put on this segment that a lot of people would disagree with it. We also knew some might even find it repugnant. (Some of you made that point loud and clear!)

But that is the very essence of what we try to do with the “freeSpeech” segment. This is a platform for our viewers to hear from a wide range of people – those who may share your views, and those who don’t.

When we approached Brian Rohrbough and asked him his thoughts about this latest school shooting, this essay was the result. We understood that people may disagree with what he said, and with what he believes. But censoring or attempting to re-shape his opinion would be antithetical to the very idea of free speech.

This is a nation built on dialogue and debate. And, most importantly, on freedom of speech. As George Washington once said, “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

We hope “freeSpeech” can add more voices to the national discussion. At the very least, last night, we got people talking.

And we hope the conversation is just beginning.


UPDATE: You can find more on this issue, including a statement from Executive Producer Rome Hartman, over at our sibling blog, Public Eye . -- Ed.

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"He was an exceptional father. He took the kids to soccer practice and games, played ball in the backyard and took our 7-year-old daughter shopping. He never said no when I asked him to change a diaper."
-- Marie Roberts, in a statement, speaking about her husband Charles, who took his life yesterday after shooting 10 Amish schoolgirls, execution-style.

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This is a word we all know, and one we'll be hearing more often in the days ahead. But where does it come from?

Amish(AH-mish, AM-ish). adj. 1. of or pertaining to any of the strict Mennonite groups, chiefly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Canada, descended from the followers of Jakob Ammann,a Swiss Mennonite bishop of the 17th century. Origin: 1835–45, American; derived from the German amisch, after Jakob Ammann.

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