UPDATED: The Horror, The Horror: A Tragedy in Newton, CT

by Jim Kopetz

18 20 dead children. Nothing evokes the final words of Colonel Kurtz in Conrad's Heart of Darkness than the atrocity committed on this day in Newtown, Connecticut*.

The inevitable fallout of today's tragedy with be pathetically politicized in the poorest of taste. Gun control with no doubt be a strong feature in tonight's "punditry". The right will blame it on the media and as an example of the "Sodom-like" state of our culture**(*). The left with neutered gun control bills they have been "pushing for years". Both will of course be wrong.

I have long been in favor of our Second Amendment rights and believe that 99.9% of gun owners are not psychopaths, but it's not a black and white issue; nor is it the time to dissect such. What really needs to happen is a serious discussion about what the fuck is going on in this country. We're up to two mass shootings in a week, within days of each other. Something is very wrong here.

The empathy I feel for the parents and families of everyone lost today is...melancholia. The sadness and anger comes in waves. Children. Innocent children as young as kindergarteners clutching their wounds as the scream out for their mothers or fathers. The last breath of hope. The children who survived, who witnessed friends and classmates in their final moments. Who will forever live with this memory. The Christmas gifts that will never be opened. 

I realize this piece is of scattered thought but that is the state of my mind at this moment. This will haunt me for some time.

THIS is the prelude to the end of the world.

* Newtown, Connecticut is about an hour from my home town, also in Connecticut.

** As I'm writing this Fox News has already brought up the crisis of faith in society and encourage everyone to pray for the victims. 

**(*) "We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?" via HuffPost