What is happening? I know senseless acts happen in all corners of the globe daily, and unfortunately many of them are not given the attention they deserve. I'm not here to talk about that today. Today I'm talking about the senseless bastard that stormed into a school full of CHILDREN and murdered 20 of them and 6 school staff (numbers aren't quite accurate, it's pretty recent so the news isn't sure of anything yet) before he was stopped. It's not known yet whether he was killed by police or committed suicide, but I hope the cops managed to get him. Someone like this doesn't deserve to choose when he dies, not when he's taken the lives of sweet little kids.
Somehow this seems worse than Columbine or Virginia Tech, because these children were so young, they probably don't even know what a school shooting is! And then to be killed just because they were at school, or to live through something like this - I can't even imagine. The poor survivors are going to be scarred for life, after seeing something so horrific. They're probably going to have nightmares and be in therapy for so long. They don't deserve that. No one does. But especially not kids.
The world is an amazing place, but it's also full of a lot of darkness - and a part of growing and maturing is the process of coming to learn that: gradually, over time, and accepting it. We can't possibly expect children to be able to cope with that - even some adults can't. This is why we shield them! We protect them, tell them everything is going to be all right, the monsters aren't real, and a hug and a kiss can fix anything. Kids aren't taught about guns in school, and why should they be? They're not taught about death and destruction, or pain and loss. They shouldn't have to face that, just by going to school.
This morning, there was also a man in China who attacked a group of 22 schoolchildren with a knife. Thankfully, none of them were killed, but it's just another sickening example of what is happening in the world. And it may just be the fact that I've become more aware of the media recently, but it seems like this kind of thing has been happening a lot lately, especially in the States. There was the shooting at the theatre in Aurora in July, then less than a week ago at a mall in Oregon, and now this. This is SO close to Christmas too, I can't even fathom it, it makes me so sick.
Christmas is a time for family and children, and this year there will be 20 families that have to celebrate Christmas (or Hanukkah) without their kids. And they were taken so suddenly, their families never got a chance to say goodbye, to hug them one last time and tell them they love them. I'm living away from home now at university, and my sisters are still in elementary school. My mom is also a teacher at an elementary school back home. If anything happened to any of them, I wouldn't even be able to function. Christmas is my favourite time of year, it would be forever be a horrible reminder to me.
The poor families who are left behind have it the hardest. All we can do now is hope that the ones who were killed didn't suffer. I hope it was over before they knew what was happening, before they had time to be scared. It just breaks my heart. Their families will live with the worst burden ever. Greif. They didn't know it was the last time they'd see their little ones' faces, when they left for school today. What parent deserves to feel regret over not hugging their child or keeping them home from school? Every other day, and in every other place, something like that is so insignificant in the long run. But for those 20 families, their lives will never be the same, and they'll wonder if something so small could have made a difference.
The children were not the only ones who died today. I would like to send an enourmously sincere thank you to the adults at the school who gave their lives or were injured because they tried to protect the kids. Those are true heroes, who had no way of defending themselves, but took their job that much farther because they wanted to save people.
The sick bastard who opened fire on those defenceless kids today had NO RIGHT to take family and Christmas away from ANYONE. I have no clue what his reasons were, but it doesn't matter. No reason is EVER good enough to take the life of a child. What could they have possibly done to him?! He probably didn't even have any actual reasons, he was sick in the head. And that makes me even more sick. This was so easily preventable!
And I'm not here to start a debate about gun control, because the fact of the matter is this: Guns don't kill people. People kill people. If we protected the general public from sick-minded freaks, guns wouldn't be an issue. They're inanimate objects, they have no will of their own. Human beings should know better. Living creatures instinctively protect their young, and if we consider ourselves so evolved, why aren't we doing a better job of it?
It bothers me when people turn a tragedy into a political argument, especially so soon right after the fact, because I feel like it's disrespectful to the victims. We need to remember them and honour them, before people start pointing fingers 'Obama could have prevented this!' etc. You think Obama is not mourning over this? He's a father, too.
Rather than that depressing note, I'd like to leave you on an uplifting one. Among all the love and justified outrage on Twitter today, I found a link to the following article:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/moments-that-restored-our-faith-in-humanity-this-y
And then I found another one, along the same lines:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/pictures-that-will-restore-your-faith-in-humanity
Just to remind us all that not everyone is evil, some people are willing to do anything to make a child happy, and make us cry tears of happiness, instead of sadness.
Goodnight, and please join me in sending your prayers and positive thoughts towards the victims of this tragedy.
