I am starting to feel overwhelmed with all of the news reporting of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Did you hear ’em talkin’ ’bout it on the radio,
Did you try to read the writing on the wall?
There are all of the arguments about gun control. There are the media interviews with the people who knew the troubled briefcase-carrying kid who became the shooter, Adam Lanza, although I know we probably will not use the information about him to gain any new understanding about helping kids like him before these tragedies occur. There are the Internet rumors, where I see over and over again on Facebook and Twitter how Morgan Freeman wrote an essay about the tragedy when it was so obviously a hoax (but he eventually had to waste his time telling us it was a hoax). Others question whether there will be copycat shootings. And then there is the struggle to give some meaning to the fact that around the same time a mentally ill man in China attacked kids at a school with a knife, injuring 22 students.
Day after day another Momma’s crying,
She’s lost her precious child
And there are the heartbreaking stories about all the kids and adults killed in the shooting as the funerals begin. I keep thinking how many of those families go home every night to a Christmas tree with wrapped presents that no longer have a recipient. And then I cannot take any more and I turn off the TV for awhile.
But we also realize that we have been here before, and not only do I not have any answers, nobody else does either.
Did that voice inside you say
I’ve seen this all before?
It’s like Deja Vu all over again.
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty released “DeJa Vu (All Over Again)” as a title track on his album of the same name in 2004, apparently taking the title from the great baseball philosopher Yogi Berra. The song was written to point out similarities between the Iraq war and the Vietnam war, and it stands as one of Fogerty’s best songs in recent years.
Unfortunately, the song’s lyrics fit more than just the war, including the recent tragedy.
Maybe fake Morgan Freeman was right that we should just turn off the news for a little while, perhaps while we crank up the music.
Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
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