In this short, lovely commentary [1], Mark Silk captures much about Connecticut that matches with my impressions of the state I still consider home. Silk also captures the way a tragedy like the shooting in Newtown impacts localities differently because of the degree of connectedness the tragedy reveals. This is a very important point. People who tend to speak about a universal sense of identity, without acknowledging the ways physical, familial connectedness alter our moral compass, can end up sounding - and being - inalert to the human and the humane.