Telling Numbers

In Vietnam we learned the battlefield could be anywhere: in a rice paddy or a house full of children. So we should not be surprised when the bullets ring out at elementary schools, college campuses, nightclubs, restaurants, amphitheaters and now in the most unreal of all unreal places, the Las Vegas Strip.

Violence is always unreal, until it is not.

So the children and grandchildren of a generation defined by "four dead in Ohio" have ...

59 dead at Mandalay Bay
49 dead at Orland's Pulse
32 dead at Virginia Tech
26 dead at Sandy Hook.

When will it stop? I think we're all afraid that it won't. So we say prayers, light candles, hope the next time never happens — even though in our heart of hearts we know it will.