Certainly, this point of view will be looked at by some as simplistic because I’m from a generation that grew up before Columbine, West Paducah, Pearl and now Newtown. Several years ago I wrote a series of columns about what I called the subtle erosion of America. While all these issues merit discussion I believe attempting to find an answer to what is happening in our country lies much deeper. Others say add prayer back to our schools and into our daily life and these horrific mass killings will stop. Others want to have an armed security guard at every school and every business in America while some believe that arming school officials, teachers and employees is the answer. Talking heads on television, people on message boards and social media and of course politicians always looking to further their cause and re-election all had a variety of answers on how to make life in the 21st Century safe.Īnd of course passing tougher and more stringent gun control measures is as always at the top of the list. The bodies of the victims had not been identified on Friday before suggestions on how to prevent another mass shooting started. This event coupled with a never-ending 24-hour news loop on cable television prompts the same reaction that we have become accustomed to when there is yet another mass killing – revulsion, anger, fear, dread and the inevitable finger-pointing about why. Those 10 poignant and chilling words by a psychologist discussing the massacre of 26 people – 20 of them six and seven-year-old children – at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, sums up the world that we live in nowadays. “The red line of the unthinkable has been moved again.” Some will read this and agree and some will strongly disagree, but it’s a given and I believe we can all agree that unless something drastic changes across our nation that the “red line of the unthinkable (another school shooting) will be moved again. However, as I read the words I wrote 10 years ago I realized my opinion has not changed one bit. Replace the name of the school, the name of the shooter and the location and everything is exactly as it was 10 years ago. As I read through these emotional words early this morning I sadly realized that nothing has changed in the past decade. Reading today about yet another shooting massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this column came to mind.
In the list of those killed, 20 were first grade students. (Editor’s Note: I wrote this column in 2012, a decade ago, on the day following the shooting deaths of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut.
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