They’d be 11 years old, or 12, the 20 first-graders who were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., five years ago Thursday.

There were six adults killed that day as well.

It was a horror we couldn’t imagine at the time.

It wouldn’t shock us at all these days. There have been so many mass shootings since then.

The murdered children would be in sixth grade, enjoying those lanky in-between years. The math they’d be learning in school would begin to baffle some of their parents. They would be learning more complicated aspects of science. The solar system, perhaps. Geology. They’d be reading more sophisticated work and learning themselves to analyze some of it. And to write short essays on their own.

But, they’re gone.

Why Trump couldn't go to Newtown

President Donald Trump didn’t go to Newtown for a fifth anniversary service. He didn’t make a public statement about gun violence and things we might do to prevent the chances of future massacres.

Then again, if he had done so the president might have been asked why, during the presidential campaign, he kissed up to the loathsome conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Politicians say despicable things during a campaign. They do despicable things. And for the most part, we forgive them.

But this?

Of the Newtown massacre Alex Jones said, “Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured.”

After the election Jones reported that Trump called to thank him.

According to Jones, “He (Trump) said, ‘Listen, Alex, I just talked to kings and queens of the world, world leaders, you name it, but he said it doesn’t matter, I wanted to talk to you, to thank your audience, and I’ll be on the next few weeks to thank them.’ I said is this is a private call? And he said, ‘No, I want to thank your viewers, thank your listeners for standing up for this republic, we know what you did early on, throughout this campaign, standing up for what’s right.’”

Standing up for what’s right?

For saying the massacre was faked?

We have changed since Sandy Hook

Thursday at the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders skirted questions about the possibility of gun legislation in light of the fifth anniversary of the Newtown massacre. She clearly didn’t want to talk about it.

During the original memorial service for the 26 children and adults who were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School, then-President Barack Obama said, "Can we say that we're truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose? I've been reflecting on this the last few days. If we're honest with ourselves, the answer is no. And we will have to change.”

And we have changed.

For the worse.

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