AndoverMagazineFrontWinter2013

December 16, 2012
John Palfrey’s Message to Students
on the Newtown Tragedy
Dear Phillips Academy students:
I am thinking of you from snowy Andover for many reasons, but primarily because of the terrible tragedy in Newtown,
Connecticut, on Friday. While I hope you are enjoying a well-deserved break, I am certain that the news of the school
shooting has reached you, wherever in the world you may be for the holidays.
To ignore events of this magnitude would be hard to do—and also a mistake, a step along the dangerous path toward
becoming desensitized to the suffering of others. But even when one looks at what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary
School head on, it is hard not to have a sense of powerlessness in the midst of the sadness. I am writing to suggest that there
are positive things that we all can do. Here are three responses to consider:
Empathy: One way to channel our sadness is to feel empathy for those who are affected directly by these events. As
President Obama said tonight at the prayer vigil for the victims and their families: “Whatever portion of sadness that
we can share with you, to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear. Newtown, you are not alone.” The President is right:
communities, even the global community, can stand together in ways that make everyone stronger, including those bearing
the heaviest burdens in the wake of the tragedy. Some people are flying flags at half mast; others are holding prayer vigils. I
noticed that Andover students have been writing messages online with the hashtag #prayersfornewtown. It almost doesn’t
matter how we express our support, but feelings of empathy and responses, however small, can make an extraordinary
difference. We can work together to instill a sense of hope and of community on the saddest of days. It is on these saddest
of days when this connectedness is most important.
Compassion: A step beyond empathy, we can each find within ourselves compassion toward others and act upon that
compassion. Andover’s founding principle of non sibi demands that of us all, on every day. Our admission office, in
choosing all of you, has selected you not just for your talents and brilliance, but the fact that each of you is nice, and
therefore good at compassion. These are ideals that define our community, compelling us to act while on campus and
during lifelong associations with this Academy. In the midst of the holidays, and also the complex time for our seniors of
finishing college applications and hearing some early news, we can all find new ways to act with compassion toward one
another, at home and in our communities. Tragedies can be an effective way to summon the better angels of our nature.
Engagement: Trickiest of the three is to engage with the news and speak out about it. This can be especially hard when
the facts strike close to home: the violence took place in a school in a small New England town, which could have
been virtually any school, anywhere in the world. The random quality of this attack makes the violence seem all the
more unspeakable; and yet we should speak about it and seek to understand how we can prevent it from happening
the next time. There are many debates buried here in these facts. The historic debate in the United States about the
Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, and the movement for gun control is one. The paucity of care for those
with mental health disorders in our society is another. Those on the Phillipian or in Philo have natural outlets for
engagement with these issues, but we can all find ways to be involved in civic life around related issues. Whether
through social media, at the dinner table, or in our communities, we can all be part of learning from these terrible
events and helping to improve our societies in their aftermath.
My own reaction to these events has been sadness mixed with an aspiration to do all these things. But most of all I
am overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude for the strong and supportive community I find myself and my family in,
here at Andover. I wish you a restful and happy time with your families.
Warmly,
JP
Editor’s note: This is the first of what will be a regular feature of Andover magazine—a column written by Head of School John Palfrey.