I had a column written and ready to be sent to THE STAR this week about this VW Super bowl advertisement controversy that really isn't a controversy but then a couple of things happened that made the whole brouhaha pale in comparison.

Two stories this week caught my attention: a 14-year-old girl strangled with her own school tie and a four-year-old shot and killed by someone who allegedly had an issue with a member of the child's family. You know, I have been very aware that many of us have completely lost our minds but these acts of violence against children completely blows mine.

What could this 14-year-old girl, Shariefa Saddler, have done to someone to cause them to strangle her and throw her body from a moving vehicle? What kind of animal would do this to a child? But just when I thought it couldn't get worse, some man decides that shooting a four-year-old was a good way to get back at that child's family?

What in God's name is wrong with some of us? I don't even have words to express how angry I am about this and it seems virtually impossible to stay happy for long in this country. Something always comes up that shakes you to the very core, disrupting whatever happy thoughts you may be harbouring.

I have two children - an 11-year-old and a one-year-old, two children very close to the age of those killed in the past few days. I look at them and try real hard to wrap my mind around what would ever make me harm any of them and you know what, I couldn't find a single thing. In fact, I almost threw up in my mouth thinking about it.

So for someone to bring the lives of these two children to horrific closures, they clearly have to be out of their cotton-picking minds. What gets me though is that besides a statement from Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller condemning Saddler's killing, there has been a conspicuous silence from the rest of society. Where is the furore? Where is the anger? What will it take for us to start being human again and protest the senseless killing of these children?

There was a time in this country where these evil acts would have triggered national outrage. Where did that Jamaica go? Have we become so insensitive to wanton acts of violence that we don't even know how to react to these things anymore? I doubt that because just a few weeks ago when a gunman cut down 20 kids in Newtown, Connecticut, I heard many Jamaica's voice their disgust and send up their prayers. What is different about this kid - Rushaun Burford? The children who were brutally murdered in Newtown were six- and seven-year-olds, he was just four. He was even younger, even more innocent.

Come on Jamaica! What is wrong with us? Why have we stopped caring? They say evil only thrives when good men stand aside and do nothing; aren't there that many of us who are good and willing to stamp out the evil that exists among us? What are we afraid of?

Good God! What will it take for us to start being real people again instead of zombies walking around waiting for our heads to be blown off?

'... For someone to bring the lives of these two children to horrific closures, they clearly have to be out of their cotton-picking minds.'