As we begin the new year, let us not forget all those who were murdered or accidentally shot in the past year. Statistics show that the first week of a shooting, the media covers the slaughter day and night. The following week, it only gets minimal coverage like the third week and by the end of the month, no one is covering the horrific events four weeks earlier. We must remember better than the media does. Here is Dr. Baird’s new song dedicated to those 26 little kids and teachers who were cut down in their elementary school.

There’s been another slaughter.
This time it’s kids in school.
And our debate grows hotter
As their bodies cool.

We have a long tradition:
Black kids die day and night.
Now there’s more ammunition;
For this time they were white.

Children in the afterlife
Cry out to everyone,
“Must the reverence for life
Bow to the worship of the gun?”

Now once again a slayer,
A lonely, sick, young man,
Has driven us to prayer
But prayer’s not a plan.

Commandment: make no idol.
Amendment: own a gun.
Kids die as we sit idle.
If we must choose: which one?

Children in the afterlife
Cry out to everyone,
“Must the reverence for life
Bow to the worship of the gun?”

Stephen Baird, December 29, 2012