By now everyone who is not a complete media hermit knows about the tragic events of yesterday at Sandy Hook. When it takes the murder of 20 elementary school children for politicians to declare that now is the time to work on serious gun control laws, it is a sad statement indeed. The truth is, the time to start would have been any time before this. Now is already too little, too late.

Postponing the opportunity to do the right thing is an unfortunate part of business as usual in Washington DC. Delays of important changes are the norm in all aspects of politics, because money is inevitably involved. And sometimes the delays are just plain due to basic human evils of greed or power. But it does not take much to see that inaction is not merely wrong, but is itself a willful action of its own to maintain an outmoded status quo.

The issues of the Sandy Hook massacre do not end with gun control. This is a mental health issue as well, one which should equally invigorate the push for greater universal access and improved social services, which have for decades been fought against and delayed, delayed, delayed.

This is not a mere issue of procrastination, which is bad enough. But extrapolating the wisdom of “not putting off until tomorrow what you can do today” brings this down to the personal level and hopefully will make everyone realize that there is no escaping our collective culpability. We all had a hand in the death of those children by our very lack of action. Look in the mirror and realize this: if you have not made your voice heard and taken action to prevent this sort of thing, then your lack of action is part of the reason those children are dead. Putting off calling your congressman is a deliberate force in making these things likely to happen again. Not voting against politicians who fail to actively fight to bar automatic weapons or expand social programs is an actionable offense that you are culpable for.

These are black and white issues. We all have levels of guilt here. Do not delay on making things right until tomorrow.