When a President Cried

At a time of year when Christians around the world are commemorating the birth of the Divine Child, some parents in Newtown, Connecticut, USA are mourning the death of their children.

There are probably hundreds of children around the world – in under developed countries, in conflict zones – who will die every day up to Christmas and beyond. But right now the focus has been on what one British newspaper described as a massacre of innocents. How horrendous to lose your child in such a manner. Schools should be one of the few places where you expect your children to be safe. 

I worked with several of the paramedics who were first on the scene dealing with the carnage on the trains at various metro stations after the 2005 London bombings. Many, especially the younger ones, suffered severe post traumatic stress. Not trained for such horrors, those teachers immediately on the scene at that school in Connecticut will carry the scarring from that day for some time.

How many more terrible shootings in American schools before the authorities do something about it; before American parents take to the streets clamouring about the safety of their children in schools?  This is the 9^th event of its kind in 13 years. If it was the UK the whole country would be in uproar.

           Are there really 300 million guns in circulation in the USA, more than one each for every adult citizen? Nah. There can't be.
      I have many good friends, and a god daughter in the USA, and everyone is expressing the same sentiment: something has to be done. Perhaps Obama will take on political opposition as well as the extremely powerful gun lobby. He can try. Don’t think he has any chance of success during the final period of his Presidency. Not sure that Americans are yet ready to relinquish their ‘right to bear arms’, but at least there could be better control. But how to keep guns out of the hands of psychologically disturbed young men?

Last weekend I heard about my friend’s inoperable stage three brain tumour; this weekend the news networks are filled with that horrific mass murder of six and seven year old children in their classroom. Perhaps next weekend I’ll win the lottery.