No Worse

Trey Smith

Now we are told that the Newtown, Connecticut killer was unique, evil, crazed. He may have been all of those things but he was not the outlier we are told. If Adam Lanza had been wearing a police officer or soldier’s uniform, he could have killed anyone he wanted without fear of punishment. He also could have expected to have nothing but praise heaped upon him.

Lanza was no worse than the drone operators and soldiers who act on government orders. The only difference is that they have permission from the state and approval of the populace to kill at will. There will be no end to senseless violence unless Americans affirm that they want it to stop and that there should no longer be any sacrosanct killers.
~ from Freedom Rider: Killing Children by Margaret Kimberley ~

I realize that some readers may have grown weary of my continued insistence to focus on this overall topic. We get your point, they say. Why beat it into the ground?

My response is: It needs to be beaten into the ground.

Kimberley, a writer I have grown to admire, makes an astute point. We are a nation of killers. Non-sanctioned killings are met with horror and emotional angst. Sanctioned killings, too often, are met with a yawn, at best.

If you recoil in disgust and dismay at Newtown, you SHOULD experience the very same emotional response WHEREVER and to WHOMEVER it occurs. Senseless murder is senseless murder. The death of innocent babes is an atrocity, regardless of whose babes they are.

The abject sorrow wrought by families and friends knows no boundaries. Do you really think the agony felt by the parents of those 20 children senselessly slaughtered in Connecticut is deeper or more worthy than the agony felt by Afghan, Yemeni or Palestinian families who have learned that the lives of their children has been ruthlessly cut short?

I hope this is something you've thought about today amidst all the trappings of this holiday season.