So Massachusetts didn't even vote at all? That's extremely frustrating.
And if they can vote absentee for 'extreme' circumstances only, who gets to decide? The party leaders? The proponents of the bill? The opponents?
Feingold is the only one that sticks out in my mind as bucking this trend - he never missed a single vote, even as he was losing his 2010 re-election campaign and his opponent was working the campaign trail every day.
Unfortunately, people like Feingold are the exception, not the rule.
There's a reason we have police and local authorities in addition to high-level politicians. They handle local politics and issues. If we actually need our state representatives so involved in something like this that they can't perform the functions they were elected for, then that's a systemic problem that should be addressed.
Is this a bit insensitive? Perhaps. But these people have a responsibility to look at the big picture, and if that means ignoring something tragic but not related to their responsibilities, they need to recognize that and act appropriately.