As the bedlam of the morning rush recedes, the hours of wait start to dim, since she last held her child’s mangled body, reduced to a school shooting story that would begin when hers ended forever.

The long eulogies, the abject misery and the grief that follows the trails of violence could be avoided. Most gun violence can be avoided. The man who shot at kids, or the singer who was shot at, all of it could have been avoided.

I imagine what Savitri bai and Fatima Shaikh would be thinking watching this future they sacrificed their lives over, watching young women fight over inconsequential things, and fritter away the precious opportunity of an education.

A war has broken out far away from me, yet as a mother, I worry. What if...?

These young people didn’t get beamed down from outer space. Nor did they need any special brainwashing to get this way. Then what has happened?