“For whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” — John Donne

Instead of squarely looking at ourselves in the mirror and asking why two clearly disturbed teenagers committed a traumatic shooting horror in Tacloban City, many of us are turning away.

It is a supreme act of hypocrisy by many who, in desperately trying to blame someone or something for the tragic event, recklessly commit themselves, without qualms or conscience or much thought, to cruelly pass off their own guilt about the Tacloban and other school violence horrors to the children.

Do we now all truly, sincerely believe that children as young as 10-years-old are monsters born to commit crimes, even casually kill? Where did that monstrous fixation come from?

If we believe that is our personal and social reality, what then have we become? Or worse, why do so many of us readily abdicate or shirk — without writhing in agony — our honored responsibilities as citizens, parents, guardians and adults?

Yes, the ridiculous manufactured uproar about the Juvenile Justice Law is the washing of hands and guilt, of the abject refusal to confront the heartrending issue that many of us now darkly see our own children as reflections of our own dark selfish horrific selves.

Sadly, many of us deny it’s such, to the extent of boorishly approving the cartoonish delirium of mediocre Sen. Robin Padilla who didn’t pause, much less was mollified, on being told of the fact that the two teenagers easily got guns.

But then perhaps it’s too much to expect of a feckless man who once went to prison for illegal gun possession, only to be fully pardoned by a foul-mouthed former president also besotted by guns and violence.

Still, Padilla stands forth as a dark, somber reminder of our times where guns are abundant, easily accessible and quickly brandished at the slightest provocation.

We must first honestly admit that we have a gun culture and admit our closeted approval of violence which the gun represents.

Truly, too, we honestly have done nothing. We don’t ban guns outright. We don’t see anything disgusting with gun stores and gun shows at malls.

Yes, we have a culture of violence. We don’t have a culture of peace and care. No wonder we now have violence-prone children.

Hopefully, however, it is also a time for reckoning. As the mother of one of the shooting victims wailed: “I’m asking that the gun owners be charged, because the guns wouldn’t have ended up in the children’s hands if it weren’t for them!”

Besides the guns, many of us too have dispensed with caring what our children see or do with their free hours, leaving them at the mercy of modern digital devices driven more by profit than by our children’s overall well-being.

At the moment, we frankly have shockingly lost the battle for the hearts and minds of our children.

We will pay for it soon enough, flailing hopelessly before more sheer fears and more tears in the forthcoming days.

We must not bite the bullet and do nothing about our children losing their innocence, losing their ability to read and comprehend, losing their budding critical faculties and losing their moral compass.

Many things can yet be said. But for now, it is time to truly, honestly look at ourselves in the mirror and ask the tough questions.