Daniel Strunk of The Chronicle, Duke University’s independent student newspaper, has written a powerful and moving piece in reaction to the Newtown shooting.

A Response to the Newtown, Conn. shooting

Upon reading the first story of the Newtown, Connecticut shooting that came up on my Facebook newsfeed today, I said a prayer to God in heaven asking comfort for the families, Americans, and all those who grieved. Continuing on, however, I was thrown from my usual formality when engaging in such conversation with my Lord. Carried away in very ineloquent but passionate utterances, I proceeded to interject cries of disbelief about humanity. I lamented—and quite irately so. I decried that this evil might still exist in a society that could surely prevent it. That humanity could let such a tragedy occur. That our world, as we know it, could somehow turn the heart of that gunmen black as coal.

I continued reading the news story. I read that a young boy was carried out of his classroom by a police officer, bleeding from gunshot wounds. I read that Kindergartners, busy learning in their reading groups, had to run and hide in bathrooms from the “hammering” that their teachers told them was occurring—realizing (or maybe not realizing) that the “hammering” was really discharged bullets and the “hammer” was really a gun, wielded by yet another psycho who managed to get his finger around a trigger.

I am not someone usually prone to displays of physical sentiment, but I found myself crying loudly at the end of that article. Picturing in my mind, as I couldn’t help but do, the vicious murder of eighteen young children in such a sacred space as a school building—I found it overwhelming. “I don’t want to die. I just want Christmas,” were the words of one girl lucky enough to survive with the help of a heroine teacher. Surely there are no words that could give voice to the senselessness of such a cruel wickedness, and thus impede the flow of tears dropping from the eyes of citizens across this world.

Read it all.