On Connecticut Killings!
An Open Letter to the U.S. President on the killings in Connecticut.
Mr. President: December 14, 2012
Every word in your 12/14/12 statement on the tragic shooting of school children and teachers in Connecticut rang true and your show of emotion for the loss of innocent life was moving. You spoke from the heart expressing the words and emotions of a nation grieving.
My family understands the pain involving the loss of a child. I had a sister, named Judy, who died at the age of three.
What I don’t understand is that you personally, and we, as a nation, do not share the same feelings and emotions over the loss of innocent lives (collateral damage), many who are children too, from ongoing U.S. drone strikes in countries around the world. To the parents of the children killed by our drones, the killings are as senseless, and tragic, as the shootings in the Connecticut school.
Are the lives of children killed by U.S. drones abroad any less precious than the lives of children killed at home? Where are your tears, and the tears of our nation, for the deaths of the hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent children killed by our drones? U.S. drone killings resulting from presidential “kill lists,” have got to stop. Otherwise, the killing we export, will continue returning, like chickens coming home to roost.
Indeed, “May God bless the memory of the victims. And in the words of scripture, “Heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds.” But let us stop the killing. Let us repent of our collective violence, at home and abroad.
Jim Albertini
