What does one say or how does one process an act of evil where in the matter of 10 minutes 20 young children are shot multiple times?

Last week while at work, I watched the news play out. I was busy, discussing administrative matters, personnel paperwork, running from call to call, handling a citizen inquiry and taking a phone call here and there. Then the ticker on the bottom of the screen read- "Reports indicate 26 people killed.." That is when it all changed. The atmosphere became thick and charged. Staff walked in and out of offices and breakrooms, checked televisions and spoke in hushed tones clearly unable to focus. It was what we were hearing, what we were seeing; an elementary school, several dead, some must be children.

Just like everyone across the country, we will all remember where we were when we first learned 20 children were shot multiple times at close range. We can imagine them gathered in circle time huddled with their teacher, her arms like wings outstretched around those babies, or ordered under tables in lockdown tucked tightly under tables; the teacher running at the perpetrator in the same manner as the principal. I have no doubt.

We will probably all look at our own and other people's children a little differently. This is where my mind took me on the Saturday following this tragedy, as I drove my own children and the giggling friends of my youngest to his birthday party, just how precious the cargo I was carrying truly was.  It takes a village to raise a child. We should all work to protect children, be they are own or someone elses. There is true evil in the world, this event has only proven what we already knew. This makes our job as the good people on this earth even more important. Hug your kids and if you do not have any children, make a difference in one child's life.

For evil to win-- is for good people to do nothing.