WESTMINSTER WEST — Recently on VPR, I heard it said that in order to identify the bodies of the children slaughtered in Texas, since they were too young to carry identification, it was necessary to have the parents do that unimaginable task.
The person speaking also said the weaponry used in the murders would have made a mess of those small bodies. I believe the speaker was himself the father of one of the kids murdered at Sandy Hook.
I understand why such photographs never see the light of day. But I find myself recalling the impact of Emmett Till's gutsy mother enabling the ghastly picture of her slaughtered boy to appear in the nationwide news. She insisted his casket be left open for all to see.
Notwithstanding how much remains to be addressed about racial inequity in this country, something surely did change when one mother made it impossible to continue looking away. And there is little doubt that the man who killed George Floyd is in prison now because the video footage of his murder was there for all eyes to see.
What might be the impact if the powers that be - those in Washington who persist in making nice with the gun lobby - were to see those images from Texas? To be forced to enter into the bodies of the parents who cherished those kids?
What if we were all made to get a close look at the people who died shopping for groceries?
Is that what it will take for us to wake up?
Maybe if pictures of those Sandy Hook kids had been put before our all eyes, what happened in Texas wouldn't have happened.