I continue to grapple emotionally with the tragedy that has cloaked Uvalde, Texas, the site of the hideous slaughter of 19 fourth-grade children and two teachers.
Twenty-one innocent victims lost their lives to a madman.
What seems to give this story an extra dose of pain is the reporting about the tightly knit nature of the city of 15,000 residents.
We heard in the immediate aftermath of the massacre at Robb Elementary School that the entire town seems to know someone involved in the school, and how the entire community is feeling a sort of visceral pain as a result of the madness.
Yes, there remain questions about the police response, the horrifying length of time it took for officers to storm the structure and engage the shooter. The Uvalde school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, is still perched on the hot seat and for the life of me I am puzzled as to why the school board hasn’t gotten rid of the chief.
But the pain still throbs as it emanates from Uvalde.
The Uvalde Independent School District is going to tear down the school that is the site of the massacre. That won’t eliminate the intense pain being felt in a community that, I fear, is going to remind everyone who hears its name will think first of senseless gun violence.