In communities across the country, people are joining together for vigils to remember the twenty-six people lost to mass violence [1] on Dec. 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Twenty of those killed were six- to seven-year-old children; the adults were their teachers and school leaders.

President Obama joins a vigil Sunday evening in Newtown, CT. People are gathering [2]from Bangor, Maine to Tucson, Arizona;  Lubbock, Texas to Berkeley, California.

Why did this happen? Why Aurora, Tucson, Portland, Oak Creek, and cities like Oakland where young people are lost to violence almost every week? The answers may be different and hard, but the asking of the question is imperative if we want it to stop.

As the political battles swirl and blame gaming clouds our ability to seek solutions, the loss of these very little children may compel us to agree on one simple message and quest:

Stop the violence in our country.

“God doesn’t do this to us,” said a chaplain in this interview about the effects of the violence [1] on the community and first responders.