Inequality in Tragic Deaths of Children

This week there is a lot of discussion about how to prevent the murder of children.  This isn't surprising, tragedy often inspires people to try to make the world a better place.  It's good that we live in an open society where we can discuss topics like this, and I enjoy hearing the thoughts of my friends.  I hope we can come up with a way to positively impact the world as a result.

But something bothers me.  Everyone I know is torn up about the recent school shooting in Connecticut, and rightfully so.  But that makes me wonder why people (my friends and the American populace as a whole) don't care as deeply (or enough to take action or even talk about it)when other children are murdered. 

Our current elected officials continue to drop bombs on civilians in countries we aren't at war with, and the innocent children killed in that greatly exceed the children killed in this school shooting.  Why is that?  Do people really put politics ahead of caring for murdered children?  Why aren't people equally outraged when children are killed in Pakistan?  I'd think we should be more outraged, at least mass murderers in the US are held accountable.  How many politicians and generals will never be charged?

Or why don't we care that every day children are murdered in Mexico, many with guns our country provided?  The dead in Mexico as a byproduct of the war on drugs runs in the tens of thousands, many of those being children.  Why don't my friends care about that as deeply as they care about the recent school massacre?

Do people care just because it is in the news?  Because it's inside our borders?  Because the kids come from rich, white families and not poor brown ones?  If it's due to any of those reasons it's horrifying. 

If you care about children being murdered enough to do something about it, I encourage you to include the children in Pakistan and Mexico in those actions.  Because our government officials can have more of an impact over the murders in Pakistan and Mexico than they can to prevent domestic murder, at least in the short term.  I don't think think we should ignore school shootings or the violence problem in the US, not at all.  Only while doing that we shouldn't ignore the transgressions of our country when they involve the death of children in other countries, especially when those can be addressed easily if there is enough public outcry.