On my way to work this morning, I walked into my neighborhood Starbucks. After ordering my usual, my head turned and my eyes became locked onto the image on the front page of the newspaper: The names of those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre. At the top of that text box was the list of the names of 20 6-and 7-year old girls and boys. Below that list were the names of the adult victims of the shooter. I turned away...
I am trying my hardest not to read or watch anything else about this event. As my readers may know, I have am a mother of a Kinder. To know the innocence of the lives of these precious children is to truly know God. And I just tear up thinking of the moments they and their surviving classmates experienced.
As I listened to the father of one of the child victims, one thing I knew for sure: When a child dies, racial prejudices and political affiliations go out of the window FAST. NO one cares about whether the child was affluent or poor, no one cares about who his or her parents were. They were senselessly taken from this world. Period. When a child is killed (whether it's one or 20), there is a sort of sense of loss for mental comprehension amongst us. Even those who have NEVER had a child will shed a tear and whisper a "Why?"
This tragedy speaks volumes to so many nuances in our society today. What is to be said about the perpetrator and the way in which his mind worked? What is to be said for the presence of guns in his home? What is to be said about the desensitization of violence in America? What is to be said to the demoralization of today's citizens?
It's not that I (we) don't care about what happens to children everyday around the world; we do. But this event came closer to home and was LOUD. It rings loud in our ears that SOMETHING is not right in the country that we say is "One Nation Under God". When certain destructive tragedies occur in America, it wakes us up (like 9/11) because these types of events aren't "common-place". But, like President Barack Obama said in his statement, events like these are happening too often.
What is to be done? A lot. But where do we begin? And with whom do we begin our work?
Moms and Mom-Types, something isn't right when massacre type killings are happening and there is no military warfare occurring. Let us continue to pray for the families who lost loved ones in this killing and other killings like it.
Blessings to the Community of Sandy Hook Elementary School, CT,
Aurellia Anderson
