Enough already.
We are a deeply troubled society. It's hard to think of us as otherwise. You know those life-changing events where you remember where you were when you heard the news? Well, here are the ones that are vivid in my lifetime.
November 23, 1963 John F. Kennedy Assassination (age 8)
August 1, 1966: First Shocking Mass Murder - Bell Tower Shootings at University of Texas. ( age 11)
June 6, 1968: Robert Kennedy Assassination (age 13)
June 10, 1968: Martin Luther King Assassination (age 13)
January 13, 1972 Shooting of Governor George Wallace (age 16 - I recall asking my mother what was happening to us.)
November 18, 1978: Jonestown Massacre (perpetrator and all victims were Americans)
December 8, 1980: John Lennon Shot and killed
March 30, 1981: Ronald Reagan Shot
February, 1993: Branch Davidian Siege, Waco Texas
April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City Bombing
April 3, 1996: Unabomber Arrested. Associated with bombings from 1978 on.
April 20, 1999: Columbine High School
April 16, 2007: Virginia Tech Shootings
November 5, 2009: Fort Hood Shootings
January 8, 2011: Gabby Giffords Shooting in Tucson.
July 20, 2012: Aurora, Colorado
And those are just the ones that stand out. Sadly there are others in between. (Shootings in a variety of schools, workplaces like offices and post offices, public venues like McDonald's or other entertainment places, the Olympics and so on. Killings and bombings associated with abortion clinics. But they don't rise to the level of remembering the moment.)
We need some help.
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