How did we get here?
This unholy place in America where sanctity doesn’t seem to matter.
Americans can be slaughtered in a church. Grocery stores are open targets. And somehow, schools have become killing grounds.
So far in 2022, there have been 27 shootings at schools in the United States, according to Education Week, which tracks this sort of thing.
This latest – 19 children and two adults killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas – should be the exclamation point. These should be the final killings that force a state legislature, or Congress, or a nation to rise up to find a way to protect its youngest citizens.
The killing of 10 people at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., could also have served as the exclamation point.
Or Sandy Hook. Or Columbine.
Instead it’s the usual litany – arguments over the Second Amendment.
Politicians using the deaths of kids for statements.
Liberals want to ban assault rifles and strengthen regulations on exactly who can get guns.
Conservatives want more guns, arguing that only guns can stop guns.
Everybody jumps to the conclusion that the terrorist is mentally ill. And maybe he was.
News anchors for CNN and FOX interview experts and analysts who echo their points of view, blaming each other for politicizing the murders, while politicizing it themselves.
Ultimately, nothing gets done. In less than a year, we will do this all over again.
At some point, this stuff becomes the fault of the nation, of all of us. We are a violent country. Some of us love our guns.
But none of us, we hope, can find an excuse to let murders like this be OK.
Mass killings are a stain on this country. And everybody is marked by it.
Is this Congress’ fault? We’d like to think so. It’s part of the pointing of fingers that takes place every time something like this happens.
But it’s really our fault. We elected them. Congress’ inability to do the right thing, or really, much of anything, is a reflection of society in America.
There is a pall over the nation. Can you feel it?
