Editorial: Newtown is Our Town. Mourning the Massacre, Considering America's Culture of Death

A visibly shaken Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy told us all, as we hung on his every word, that "evil visited this community today and it's too early to speak of recovery." He was absolutely correct. This has become America's tragedy. We all know deep within that those little children are our children as well. Evil visited the entire Nation on December 14, 2012. It is causing us to pause and examine ourselves.

P>WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - As the Nation mourns the horrid massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School we are just beginning to put faces on the victims. For example, most of us awakened to a photo of Dawn Hochsprung, the charismatic Principal who was killed. We read and heard of her love for the all the children, particularly the Kindergartners whom she called "kinders". We found out about the irony that she had, only days before the massacre, been able to ensure many that security in the School was of the highest caliber.

We have not yet seen the faces of those beautiful, innocent children - twenty of them,  mowed down by the violent act of one who now appears to have been properly identified as Adam Lanza. He was an apparently developmentally and mentally challenged twenty year old man. He stole the weapons used by him to kill these children and adults. Yes, he also killed eight adults, including his own mother - and himself. He shot her in the face and left at her home while he undertook the savage act which has shaken a Nation. When the carnage was over, he killed himself.

A visibly shaken Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy told us all, as we hung on his every word, that "evil visited this community today and it's too early to speak of recovery." He was absolutely correct. This has become America's tragedy. We all know deep within that those little children are our children as well. Evil visited the entire Nation on December 14, 2012. It is causing us to pause and examine ourselves.

Our President, Barack Obama, had one of his finest moments. He addressed us all with tenderness and shed a few of our tears along with his own. He told us, "We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news; I react not as a president, but as anybody else would as a parent. And that was especially true today. I know there's not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that I do.The majority of those who died today were children - beautiful, little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them - birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams."

"So our hearts are broken today for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost.Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors, as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children's innocence has been torn away from them too early and there are no words that will ease their pain. As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it is an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago, these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods and these children are our children. And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics."

Now, what will those meaningful actions be? Will we realize that Newtown is Our Town?

Of course, those concerned about guns and gun safety have already moved in, pontificating at every media intersection, new and old. Understandably, we are properly examining just how these weapons got into the hands of this young man. We must. However, at the simplest level, it is quite clear, he stole them. There was no failure in oversight at the level of regulation and governance. Thieves steal and, until the human heart is healed of the root cause of such behavior, outside/in regulations, some of which are certainly necessary for public safety and the common good, will not stop theft. It is a heart problem.

Then there is the plethora of psychologists who are being featured on our televisions and integrated media devices. Early reports indicate the young man may have exhibited signs of mental difficulties which, if caught soon enough, might have prevented the terror which he inflicted. This argument certainly has a value as we reflect on the facts which emerge over the weeks during which we will  review this historic event. However, we all know this latest violence is part of a chain of events which seem to be increasing in our Nation. As helpful as the psychological sciences are, they will not eradicate evil. They will not stop the wrong choices which spring from our hearts. Sin will not be cured by counseling nor can it be eradicated by medication.

As I listened to our President, and witnessed his sincere compassion over the senseless and brutal killing of these children, I, perhaps like millions of others who have dedicated our lives to protecting children much younger than the victims of this evil, wondered how he could not see the obvious contradiction in his selective empathy. This is the man who would not even oppose the Born Alive Infant protection Act when he served in the Illinois Senate. This is the President who has led the most Anti-Right to Life administration in US history.

As we reflect on this tragedy as a Nation, we are asking the right questions. We must continue to do so. We are properly realizing that those twenty children are our children. We are realizing that they - and the eight adults who were killed along with them - are also our neighbors. However, it is the brutality of the killing of the children which has shaken us to the core. We must acknowledge the truth. These dear ones, whose faces will soon be revealed to all of us as we mourn their brutal killing together, were also our children - and our neighbors - when they resided in the first home of the whole human race, their mother's womb. 

Medical science has confirmed what our conscience already knew and the Natural Law has long confirmed; the child in the womb is one of us, our neighbor. Our 3D and 4D sonogram technology has made it possible to take baby´s first picture and send it as a birth announcement or place it on a Face Book or My Space page or send it through our Social Networks. We marvel at the image of those little babies at the early stages of what is a lifetime of development for every human being.

However, we then use that same technology to direct the weapons of warfare which dismember them in the womb and kill them. We do not want to see those pictures. With the introduction of "baby's first picture" we watch these children smile, play, feel pain and grow. These 3 and 4d images are becoming more and more prevalent throughout the social media. They are regularly showing up on television commercials.

We surgically operate on these first neighbors in the womb when they are in need of medical attention. We then put them back in their home and allow them to continue to grow so they can be healthier upon their birth. We know they are members of our human family. All of these advances have "humanized" the child to an increasing number of people who once bought the lie of those who promoted abortion as "choice". Whether a child is "wanted" has become the sole criterion for whether he or she has a right to life. The notion of "violability" is falling down as children are surviving earlier and earlier births. Besides which, none of us are ever "viable" , if that elusive word means we are able to survive on our own. We are all dependent upon one another because we were fashioned that way. Events like the massacre in Newtown make that so very clear.

It becomes harder and harder to deny that the children in the womb are our neighbors. The Orwellian Newspeak of "Choice" is growing stale and tired. The wind is out of its sails. Some choices are always and everywhere wrong, and the taking of innocent human life in at the top of the list. We were awakened to that truth on Friday, December 14, 2012, when twenty children were killed. Those children and the children killed every day in the womb are equally precious. It is always wrong to take innocent human life and we all know it.

Decent people are beginning to recognize this and indecent people are having a hard time defending their choice to kill our youngest neighbor. As I use this expression "first neighbors" in my pro-life work people inevitably ask the questions that open the door to my being able to explain this truth. These children have no voice except our own. They are killed by chemicals and surgical strikes - all currently protected by the police power of the State. They have no power to resist the killing without our help. Since 1973 over 55 million lives, in the United States of America alone, have been taken in procured abortions. The number throughout the world is staggering and can be viewed here.

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I know that some will read my editorial and criticize my use of this National tragedy to bring up what they will seek to call a "religious" or "political" issue. However, I am convinced that as America reflects on this National tragedy she is reaching down into her National Soul and will recognize what matters most, the dignity, beauty and wonder of every single human life at every age and stage. That is why the Churches of Newtown were filled with mourners and vigils were held throughout the town. We know.

Newtown is Our Town. We are connected to those children. We are connected to all children.

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