20.
Perhaps we shouldn't be shocked anymore.
But 20.
We've grown accustomed to "Breaking News" of another mass shooting in America, and we hang our heads. But 20.
20 Children.
20 Children who will never grow up to be the doctors and firefighters, writers and veterinarians that only this morning they woke up wanting to be. This world will not know what they could have accomplished.
Bullets whizzed past kindergartners as teachers tried to shield their eyes from their classmates who had already been shot by a barely-at-20 a man with 3 guns at his disposal, all legally purchased by his mother, a teacher at the Newtown school who was also killed.
Tonight parents and other community members overflowed churches holding services for those lost, trying to make sense of it all, asking "Why? Why? Why?" There are no easy answers. They do not come.
Tonight 20 sets of parents will walk back into their homes without turning on their Christmas tree lights and they'll be met by deafening silence.
11 Days until Christmas, when we are reminded by clergy of the greatest gift that we could ever receive. The Lord giveth, and today a 20 year old taketh away.
This is not Virginia Tech.
This is not a movie theatre in Colorado.
This is not Columbine.
20 Children.
Mark Andrew Alward
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