You will never see your child alive again.

The feeling that overcame you, at the conclusion of that lede, should be the same feeling you possess when you see that an elementary school, once again, fell victim to a mass shooting in America. There has to be a point.

As a society, we have drawn our desensitized lines of acceptance in the sand: You can be killed in a movie theater. You can be killed at a music festival. You can be killed at the grocery store. You can even be killed at church. But—there has to be a point.

There should never be an instance when children are killed at school.

There should never be an instance when children are killed at school.

There should never be an instance when children are killed at school.

Nearly ten years removed from the horrors of Sandy Hook, we are faced with a tragedy that should have remained strictly unimaginable. Yet, for this country, it is a reality repeated. Dead schoolchildren. There has to be a point.

I am not a parent; but I feel, in this moment, a rage that is indescribable—because that’s how it should work. Tragedy should never have to knock on your door in order to hit home. There has to be a point.

In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, several major media outlets reported that the parents who rushed to the school were ultimately gathered into the town firehouse. The group of parents grew smaller, and smaller, until those remaining were told that their children were the victims. That night, across this country, every man and woman with a beating heart should’ve vowed that they would do everything, anything, in both their individual and collective power to ensure that such a tragedy never happened again in our lifetimes. Because, there has to be a fucking point.

Signed,

Sirelle