You know, guys.... ALL of those children were beautiful

[Number23]

ALL of those children were precious.

ALL of those children were valuable.

The coverage of the school shooting is starting to infuriate me. As the mother of a six year old, it has hit me hard from the first reporting. To be honest, it has hit me incredibly hard.

But I now find myself revolted at some of the coverage. Why in God's name was CNN interviewing children on the day of the shooting? Why in Hell would you ALLOW CNN to film your child after they have endured something like that?

Why has the coverage become so gory? Why did I need to know that the puss-filled asshole shot his mother four times in the head? That those gorgeous angels (including the principal and the teachers) had all been shot multiple times? HOW does that news improve my understanding of the issue at hand?

And why is so much of the focus turning on the one little girl, the little blonde girl? Her father, less than 48 hours after her death (when I still would have been trying to remember how to breathe) spoke about his daughter in this way;

"She was beautiful. She was blond. She was always smiling." http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/connecticut-school-shooting-dads-emotional-1492478

The man has my unending sympathy and my prayers. God only knows the hell he and so many others are going through. But there is something about the need to mention his daughter's hair color that just strikes me as so damn odd.

This little girl was also the cover girl of the tragedy in just about every Australian newspaper as well as Yahoo! and many American outlets. This entire story has sickened and saddened me beyond words. But it makes me a bit more sad and sick to think that there may be anyone out there that believes that the deaths of those other children are somehow less tragic or newsworthy because of their skin/hair/eye color.

Maybe I'm just too upset. Maybe it's time for me to step away from this story for a while.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. It might have been just that he was describing her.

And some friends of the family immediately put up a Facebook page for her, with a photo that got a lot of press, before any other photos of the other kids were published. Considering the circumstances I'm inclined to cut the girl's dad a little slack - I doubt he was trying to imply she was superior in some way because she was blond, I think he was just trying to describe her. And I don't think anyone else thinks that - I sure hope not..

[DrDan]

2. every one of them . . .

[msongs]

3. relax, it will be business as usual by next week at this time. gun owners will be blasting their way

thru another pile of living beings as usual and this week will fade