Friday turned out to be the darkest day of the year. It was a day to hug your kids, or call a parent or a friend, or do something that for a moment might dispel some of that darkness.
The news got worse with every bulletin. Shots fired in an elementary school in Connecticut. Three dead. No, many dead. Children shot. Children killed. Kindergartners.
Newtown, Conn., became Everytown, America, on this grim Friday. By mid-afternoon, the scale was clear: Twenty children murdered, plus six of their protectors. The crime took another sick turn as we were told the killer, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, was the son of one of the teachers, then that maybe he wasn’t. This appeared Friday night to be a matricide that evolved into mass murder.
All this happened during the holiday season, as people around the country prepared for a big shopping weekend, or got ready for relatives coming to town or kids coming home from college. This is family time, a season of joy. Light the candles, trim the tree.