I heard a notification on my phone. I glanced down and the headlines sent chills down my spine. “GUNMAN KILLS 19 CHILDREN IN TEXAS SCHOOL RAMPAGE.” I had to pause for a minute. Is this old news? Didn’t this happen already? No! No! I’m thinking about the ten African-American people shot in the supermarket on May 14 or was I thinking about the twenty-three people shot and wounded on the subway in New York on April 12. I could have been remembering the ten people who died in a supermarket shooting on March 22 in Colorado and the list goes on.
When is it going to stop? What kind of people are we? Who are we? Why aren’t we marching in the streets, screaming from the top of our lungs, coming together to end this senseless violence? Is it because we have grown accustomed to the carnage? What is it going to take?
On December 14, 2012, twenty children between six and seven years old were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. That was a decade ago and nothing has changed. The body count continues to grow. We can send a man to the moon, we can make electric cars, but we can’t stop the violence. We all have blood on our hands. We’re all guilty. I thought to myself that if Sandy Hook couldn’t bring change, nothing could. Sadly, I believe I’m right.
Some say we need new gun laws. Others say we need to arm teachers. We need armed guards at the schools. Others believe if you take guns from law abiding citizens, criminals will run amok. I don’t know who’s right or wrong, but I do know this, if we don’t come together to find a real solution, eventually, violence is going to show up at each and every one of our front doors and then it may be too late.
I’m going to see how I can be a part of the solution. I suggest you do the same.
God help us all.
This is a great and touching article where we repeatedly ask the same question when these acts of violence occur. I remember asking my mother many years ago what are the solutions to all of the hate and killings that are going on in this country and she said, “There are no solutions.” After digesting what she said, I realized, “The solutions should have occurred over 500 years ago.” You stay well and be safe.