Angels Weep Again

Anyone who has lost a child either live or in utero knows the aching pain that never goes away. I’m one of those people. My mother was one of those people. My great-niece is one of those people. Some of my best friends are those people. Everytime a child dies someone will say that a parent is never meant to outlive their child.

Yet again, today, the angels weep for children who were wrenched from their parents; deprived of so many joys that should have been a part of their lives. Once again we watch in horror as innocent children are gunned down. Once again we offer up prayers for them and their families. How sickeningly ironic then that they were at mass when they were shot and killed. They don’t just need our prayers, or flags flown at half mast. Neither of those things will bring them back. Nor will they stop the senseless – and frankly – unfathomable – act that makes an adult believe that they can take the lives of children. Innocent children.

It just has to stop and only we Americans can make it stop. This is not a political statement. It is a societal statement. No parent should be afraid to send their child to school, much less to church. No emergency services person should ever have to pick up the bodies of children who have been shot and killed. No emergency room at a hospital should be over-run with children who are being rushed to be treated for gunshot wounds. No parent should ever have to stand outside a church and wonder if it is their child. Heck, I shouldn’t even feel compelled to write a blog post about it. Guns continue to be the number one killer of children in the US. In most other developed nations it’s tragic accidents like drowning or traffic. Accidents. There is NOTHING accidental about deliberately buying guns and ammunition with the sole intention of shooting up a church full of children on the first day of school. The shooter apparently took the coward’s way out and killed himself. May he rot in hell.