The Outrage at Newtown, CT

In the morning and early afternoon hours of last Friday, virtually every parent looked at their children – whether those children were young or old – and felt the terror that parents in Newtown felt.

It was too easy to imagine the screams of little six-year-old children facing down the real “monster under the bed.”

Many people stopped abruptly from the frantic pace of their daily lives and the Christmas holiday rush, and they felt this deeply.

It was also too easy to insert the faces of our own young ones into this tragedy and hear their screams for help – screams for which their parents couldn’t respond.

The feelings among us all have been more than words can describe, and it’s why everyone can sympathize and stand with the parents of those 20 innocent children – not to mention the families of the six adults who gave their lives trying to protect the children.

This cannot be the normal course of events any longer.

Numerous mass killings have occurred just this year, and we cry over them when they happen, only to go on a few weeks later as if they did not happen – even forgetting them with time.

This one, however, captures our attention more than any of those other events – though they have all been horrific. This is different because it was a true slaughter of the innocents, and our hearts couldn’t help but be overtaken.

We must get to the heart of this matter.

It will not be a quick fix; it will require more than a ban on weapons or a tweaking of the laws or more monetary resources dedicated to security or mental health.

It will require a resetting of the American heart.