19 children and 2 teachers died in Robb Elementary School, Uvalde Texas (May 24, 2022, at 9:3 AM) as a result of the shooting by an 18 year old Hispanic male.

I had barely completed this piece, when another mass shooting happened in High Land Park, IL on 4^th of July.  Sadly, we have lost collective will to solve this tragic problem.  Even though such mass shootings are happening in other countries as well, the problem is uniquely endemic to our society and culture.

One has to have hope to live, but it is arduously difficult to summon the courage to say this problem would be solved during the remainder of my lifetime on planet Earth.

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The day began like any other – orderly disorder
No one had any idea what was to come
A tsunami of grief was to wash ashore
Submerging souls in the sea of glum

19 petite hearts stopped dead, like dried violets
Warm bodies doused by assassin’s cold bullets
Belying his age, coward, child in his own right
Irony not lost, he showed weakness, not his might
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