I agree with a lot of what the president said last night. Most of us could do better to protect children and innocence.
But getting close to real answers to the challenges posed and questions raised by horrific crimes like the one that has torn through the heart of Newtown, Conn., comes so many steps before lawmaking. We do tolerate — even surrender to — too much violence and indifference. We can all too often see a diminished understanding of human dignity manifested around us.
And we cannot just point to video games, either. We see the unmistakable worth of a seven-year-old who has been murdered but we don’t always see the worth of our brother asking for change — or a job — on the street corner or the unborn child who was conceived, perhaps, at an inconvenient time in not the best of circumstances.
We can do better. But that’s a spiritual matter and a civic matter and a cultural matter much more than it’s simply a legislation matter.