As previously reported, voters in Newtown, Connecticut, rejected a town and school budget on April 23rd partly because $770,000 that was added for extra police and school security in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre Dec.14th. In a new referendum today the town budget passed, but the school budget failed. By 52 votes.

Snipped from the Newtown Bee:

Council Chairman Jeff Capeci said that the number of voters who responded to the corresponding budget question signaled they wanted to see additional reductions.

The next time you read that Newtown/Sandy Hook is a tight-knit community where everybody pulls together in times of unspeakable horror and meaningless tragedy, don’t believe it for a minute. It’s easy to arrange makeshift memorials and displays of paper angels on the roadside; easy to hang green and white balloons on fence posts and road signs throughout the town; easy to stick a green and white ribbon to the bumper of your car; easy to hold candle vigils and send thoughts and prayers. Symbols of sympathy come cheap, but when asked to actually put their money where their mouths are, the good people of Newtown are oddly tight-lipped.