Half-Staff Hypocrisy

Along with most of the country I was shell-shocked by the events in Newtown Connecticut.  To see such evil unleashed on young children was appalling and a reminder of the intrinsic sinfulness of our broken world.  I was reminded once more of the accounts of Moses and Jesus where young children were slaughtered as well. This article by Russell Moore was particularly interesting and I commend it to your reading. 

In the midst of all of this I was irritated by two things that struck me as being particularly hypocritical.  First, the news media (led by Foxnews) were seemingly appalled by every detail and bit of information and yet couldn't seem to keep themselves from plastering the story on their websites and television screens across the country for a week straight.  There was a fair amount of irresponsible journalism as well, it seems that nearly all the details immediately released were incorrect, including, horribly, the name of the perpetrator himself!  I have to wonder if sometimes the sadistic glorification that we offer to these mass-murderers doesn't contribute to more massacres of this nature.  This article offers insights in that direction.

However, what struck me as most hypocritical was our government's order to fly the flag at half-staff.  Don't get me wrong, I think that something so heinous as this deserves to be grieved!  However, did you know that the city of Chicago averages 41 murders a month?  Many of those murders are drive-bys that target minority children.  Do you have to be living in a ritzy suburban area and at a nice school populated primarily by whites to get the flag flown at half-staff when you die?  Does your life have more value if it's lost on the same day as others rather than being lost across the course of 30 days?  Or, perhaps we should consider the other children who are (legally) murdered each and every day in their own mother's womb...3500 at a time.  That's 129.6 Sandy Hook's each and every day.  I think the flags should be flown at half-staff each and every day until this holocaust is stopped.

In the obsessive coverage of last week's event much ink was spilled (or pixels populated) with coverage on the President's teary-eyed speech about the lost children.  But, pardon me if I'm not moved by this.  This is a President whose convention was practically a whose who of NARAL supporters, a President who voted to let abortion survivors die on the table, and a President who seems to care only for children who are wanted.  That's what it is, isn't it?  The kids in Newtown were wanted, those who are aborted are not.  Why the outrage about the massacre of the former and not the latter?  I'd prefer to be outraged at each, anything else seems hypocritical.