Shannon in Kansas City YT: Shannon's Bible Study IG:@showmeshannon

I will never forget December 14, 2012. That was the day of the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, CT. I was working retail at that time. I had the day off and I planned to put up my Christmas tree that day. I woke up late in the morning around 10:00AM and turned on the TV. When I turned on the TV to watch “The View” there was a special news report on instead. At first I didn’t pay any attention to it.

Then I realized it was a school shooting and it got my attention. Then I realized it was a shooting in an elementary school. I was stunned and shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I didn’t put my tree up that day. Hearing about the killing of young children and their teachers spoiled my festive holiday mood. I spent the rest of the day in a daze watching news reports about the grim shooting.

I went to work the next day at a jewelry store in a shopping mall in Kansas. I was expecting business at the mall to be slow but the mall was packed with holiday shoppers. I was confused, disgusted and heartbroken. Families poured in the mall to roam about eating pretzels, drinking beverages and pushing strollers around the shopping center as if there wasn’t a child massacre in the country the day before. I was profoundly disappointed.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I had heard stories of young children and babies being shot in the US before the Sandy Hook massacre. Those tragedies happened in the inner cities. The baby was usually in the way of gang violence. Their dads were often gang affiliated and the child became collateral damage or was the target.

I think a baby or toddler being shot is cause for concern, alarm and action but the US looked the other way because those children were Black and in undesirable neighborhoods. Their demise would be blamed on their parents and politicians that created the circumstances for babies to be killed would not be held accountable for the consequences of their causes.

I thought that the US would take political action for the sake of safety, security and common sense after the Sandy Hook massacre that would benefit all Americans. I was completely wrong. American didn’t care about the mostly White, affluent children getting killed at school either.

Americans chose gun access over a secure childhood for it’s youngest citizens. Politicians refuse to hold themselves and their colleagues accountable for their actions as lawmakers. Instead they choose to pass the buck and come up with solutions that would be nearly impossible to implement.

Another Christmas time school shooting happened on Monday, December 16 in Madison, Wisconsin. It reminded me of the grim Christmas season twelve years ago. Again, children and at least one teacher was massacred at school by a deranged shooter. I believe five people died and five were injured. A second grader called 911. I saw news footage of little children, in kindergarten or first grade, running across a lawn away from danger. It’s heartbreaking and terribly unfair.

This is disgusting. It’s disturbing that this country moves on with holiday festivities as if we didn’t experience another senseless mass killing this week. I’m not being self righteous. I’m including myself in the criticism. I’m going to a Christmas dinner this evening and one later this week. I must admit that the shooting in Madison did not shock me the way the Newtown shooting did. These incidents have become common year round.