This could be the maths book of my ten-year-old daughter. Many parents will relate to the child’s handwriting and maths solving in the photo of this exercise book

But look closer and what do you notice about these pages? They haven’t been torn by a child. They have tragically been punctured by a bullet.

We may prefer not to read a post like this in holiday mode but sadly as we all know, violence isn’t seasonal.

The book captured in this photo belonged to a beautiful and innocent ten-year-old Uziyah Garcia, one of 19 children killed at the Robb Elementary School shooting in Texas on 1 June this year.

Photographer Tamir Kalifa captures what sadly may be the news photo of 2022.  An image that poignantly portrays the ordinary innocence of a child and the horror of profound violence. 

When I looked at this photo last night I hugged my kids a little tighter as they went to bed and thought of too many families, particularly in the USA who have lost children to gun violence. 

One can only hope that meaningful gun control change will one day come in the US and that peace may come in places like Ukraine in 2023, so that innocent children don’t continue to be killed by Putin’s bombs. 

And here in Australia, we can all seek to play our part in standing against violence in our communities, which kills too many people, particularly female victims of domestic violence.