Sick Men Do Sick Things

                          I tried to imagine 2/3's of my 6th grade class gone in an instant.

Today, the 14th of December of 2012, at an elementary school in Newtown Connecticut, USA, a young man shot 27 people dead, 20 of them children. At an elementary school in Xinyang, Henan, China, a young man stabbed 23 people, 22 of them children (mortality not known at this time).

As I write this, I am still somewhat stunned at both events. The obvious questions raced through my head when I read the initial reports - Why? How? Where were the security personnel? How can crazed madmen get on a school campus and wreak such havoc? It's just not possible! It doesn't make any sense!

All the reports of the incidents, from domestic and international sources, followed the predictable pattern of recounting past incidents. It was a surprise to me to read that since 2010, there have been 70 schoolchildren assaulted by knife-wielding strangers in China, resulting in 20 deaths. 

I was, unfortunately, well acquainted with the statistics for North America - I lived in San Diego when the young woman Bob Geldof wrote "I Don't Like Mondays" about used a rifle to shoot 10 people (7 children) at the elementary school across the street from where she lived. She managed to kill two people before she was arrested.

Since that day in January of 1979, over 50 people have been killed in attacks at Primary schools in the United States. Worldwide, the number of people killed in attacks at primary schools is staggering. No country seems to be immune to this madness, as the attacks have occurred everywhere - Afghanistan, Belgium, Germany, Namibia, Angola, Latvia, Russia, Israel, Brazil...there is no safe haven.   

Why children? What can possibly drive a person so insane that they chose children to be their victims? How can anyone want to take the life of someone who has yet to have the opportunity to truly live?

I looked at my class pictures from my elementary years this evening. Most of the kids I knew in elementary school I went to both junior high and high school with. Looking at the picture from my 6th grade year, the one posted with this blog entry, I see kids I still know to this day. I see kids I grew up with and got to know as adults. I see kids that grew up in the houses across the street from me or up the block, I see kids I saw as adults at our 20 year high school class reunion.

I cannot imagine what life would have been like for any of us had we experienced anything like what occurred today.

I grieve for the children and the teachers that were killed today. I grieve for their families. I grieve for humanity.