OLD TALE IN A NEWTOWN

Two days ago 20 beautiful first graders and 6 brave teachers lost their lives. No, this was not a school bus accident or a case of a communicable disease. It was another scourge, however, that took these lives - gun violence.

A deranged young man - it is always a deranged young man - gained access to his mother's vast arsenal. He first took her life. As if that were not tragic enough, he next forcibly entered her workplace - Sandy Hook Elementary School in his hometown of Newtown, CT.

For all we know he may have even once been a student in this same school. However, this did not deter him from brandishing a semi-automatic rifle and terrorizing the entire school and this community.

One can only imagine the screams of those young victims and the cries of those who fought to protect them in vain. The violence of that sound would be deafening. The violence of that sound would surely be seared into our collective consciences. The violence of that sound would surely not fade.

Sadly, the same had probably been said after Columbine, Blacksburg, Tucson, and Aurora. Yet each time, we have moved on. We have forgotten. Our will to have a constructive dialogue on this subject has always waned. Our collective disgust has always subsided. Our pledge to the victims and their families has always been empty.

Yet, Newtown feels different. Newtown is a moment that feels just like its eponym. We have the chance to make things better this time. To make something of this tragedy, to turn carnage into courage. The politics are never convenient or easy. They were not in Gettysburg in 1863. They were not in Selma in 1965. And they will not be in Newtown in 2012.

But the slaying of innocents comes at a time when a lame duck Commander-in-Chief who happens to be the father of two young children is in office. That man, Barack Obama, spoke in solemn tones on the day of the shooting and even more so at the Memorial service tonight. In his tears and through his eyes and words, I heard resolve. I heard empathy. I also heard a call to arms - not against those who fired the guns or who make them - but against ANYONE who would stand in the way of making this society safer for children and citizens, alike.

There can be no greater purpose for a society than protecting its children, he said. They are the most vulnerable among us. Yet, they are also the most important because they are our future. To paraphrase the historian George Santayana, any society that is not willing to protect its future is doomed to repeat the failings of its past. What will it be America? Let the names below be a constant reminder of exactly what is at stake.