America is in the middle of a debate. There are post about gun laws and the safety of our countries citizens. Less than twenty four hours ago a man decided to go into an elementary school and kill 26 people, 20 of them being children.

 A friend text messaged me in the middle of the day with just the words “what a sad day”. Like I have said in previous blogs I rarely watch the news so I had no idea what that meant until I asked what was wrong. Almost immediately the tv that was on where I was eating got turned to the news. Images of body bags, parents frantically looking for their children, and heavily armed ATF agents flashed across the screen.

I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn’t imagine the trauma the “survivors” of this act will endure for the rest of their lives. I was also sick for another reason. I was sick of watching some guy in a suit make pretend how upset he was for the victims, while trying to get the best shot of a mom that collapsed after hearing her child was one of the 20 that didn’t survive.

I was sick at how the banter back and forth between reporters seemed like deja vu to me. References to the infamous columbine shooting and other tragedies were talked about at length. Information on the shooter involved were desperately being searched for. Who was he? What was his motive? What’s his background? While the question in my head was, what about the victims families? What about the people that survived? 

In the news reporters rush to interview six year olds, they seemed to forget about the parents that have not yet arrived on the scene. The mother or father who now is frantically driving to the school praying for good news. The story is more important than anything else. For the media it’s a race to the carnage.

I read a post on Facebook that said “I don’t trust anyone that can’t talk about this mornings tragedy without a TelePrompTer”. I was drawn to that statement. It made me start writing at 5:15am instead of going back to sleep. 

Why do we have a million reality shows about people getting drunk, fighting, back stabbing each other etc? Because WE the people watch them religiously. WE the people can’t help but stare at the car crash as we drive past it. So the media delivers that car crash with fake sympathy and sadness to the masses.

We put the spotlight on the shooter and eventually push the victims off to the side. We don’t get the background of every victim, but there won’t be a person in this country that won’t know the names of the killer. They will in infamy forever and provide that next killer with inspiration to do the same. Get on t.v, get the attention maybe they never had in life, and then take their own lives without having to live with the suffering that the victims families will have to go through. 

I believe evil exist in this world. It has always been prevalent in our society since the beginning of time and always will be. When you broadcast this evil every day that’s the  energy that is spread. 

I pray for the victims families, I pray for the men and women that were in the school helping evacuate teachers and kids, I pray for the members of the firehouse that had to house all the deceased so families could identify their bodies, I pray for the hospital workers that even as I write this are trying to save the lives of those that were involved, and I pray that one day when tragedy happens our televisions will broadcast for reality not ratings.