On Friday, December 14th a 20 year old young man walked into an elementary school and shot 26 people, including 20 children. Mentioning his name only encourages his malevolence and calamitous behavior thus fueling the fire for future murders to indulge in their own built up anger. I’d like to take a moment to write about the tragic event that happened on that beautiful Friday in memory of the poor angels we lost.
Friday, December 14th I woke up sleepily, stumbling my way through my morning routine as I prepared for work that day. Walking out to my car (about 10 minutes too late) I noticed my back left tire was flat. “DAMN!!!” I shouted as I approached my limp tire, thinking “Wow, this is just my luck. What an awesome day”. I’m almost as big a fan of sarcasm as I am a fan of talking to myself. I proceeded to notify my boss of my situation, and went back into my apartment and crawled into bed. After dozing off for a bit, I woke up to my phone, which was receiving email after email. Sliding open my phone, my Facebook app was open. The first status read “I can’t believe the tragedy in Newtown”. Something about that one and only status that I saw just clicked, and I knew to turn on the news. Sure enough, the first and only thing occupying my television was Newtown coverage.
I just sat there, in my work clothes on top of my down comforter with my mouth agape, watching this tragedy unravel in front of Americas eyes. And to think, just an hour before I was complaining about spending $200 on a tire and thinking it was the end of the world.
Initially, the live coverage announced there to be 20 deaths within the elementary school caused from bullet wounds. It was only minutes later when the news then revealed that the final body count was 26. The ages of the victims range from as young as 6 years old to 56 years old, with the majority of the deaths being children of ages 6 and 7. The 6 staff member fatalities were all women, with one teacher being as young as 27. Her name was Victoria Leigh Soto, A young lady just like me, who was gunned down and killed all because of one demented cowards personal issues.
It is said that the shooter shot his own mother in her home, while stealing her weapons to then take to the school. After collecting his 26 victims, the shooter then proceeded to end his own life in the chaos in which he created. Reading details and quotes from the event illustrate graphic and morose images in my mind. One instance in particular that touched me was about a girl who pretended to be dead in the middle of her classroom, surrounded by her dead classmates, who then escaped from the school. After running to her mom, she said “I’m okay mommy-but all my friends are dead”. Can you imagine that coming out of a 6 year olds mouth? Try to. As much as you don’t want to envision the horror, the fact of the matter is that this is happening in our own back yard.
The massacre is reported to be the second-deadliest school shooting in United States history, after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. It also is the second-deadliest mass murder at an American elementary school, after the Bath School bombings of 1927. That’s a pretty big jump there, 1927 to 2007 and 2012. Is there something specific we are missing within our generation of young adults that needs to be addressed?
Other examples of a deranged monster within his early 20’s is the batman shooter. Like the previous satanic mass murderer, I refuse to list the name of the killer simply to avoid feeding their need for attention that got us on this topic in the first place. This lunatic opened fire in the middle of the midnight showing of the latest batman film, taking 12 lives and wounding 58. Prior to the shooting, the gunman was reported to had purchased prostitutes as well as stocked up on ammunition and firearms months before. This obviously was not a last minute decision and had been precisely thought about much before the event took place.
What is going on with our young men in America? Why is everyone so angry? My fear of having children for myself stems from evil acts such as these mentioned in my post that seem to occur much too often. Mothers of 2012 now fear dropping their kids off at elementary schools and libraries, this says something about us as humans, NOT just as a country.
In an act to reduce violence Mayor of Arkansas, Mike Gaskill has announced that beginning in 2013, armed police officers dressed complete in SWAT gear will be approaching civilians on the streets, requesting their matter of business and to see their I.D. Has it really come to this? Are we no longer able to walk to the gas station in our sweat pants and slippers to grab a ‘cold pop’? Represent, sweet brown. They said in a town with population 26,113 that 86 rapes, robberies and assaults had taken place within the year of 2010, as was to double within the next year. And if you don’t produce some kind of identification, you’ll be cited for obstructing a governmental operation. Seriously? - Yes. The same mayor is mentioned to had been ridiculed for his previous ‘stop-and-frisk’ project, which is noted in this article I found, here.
I fear for our future, but until the shit hits the fan I suggest we all love each other as hard as we possibly can, until we can’t stand it any longer.
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