When you think about the holidays, hopefully you can conjure up images of fireplaces, gifts, family, food, and whatever warm traditions your family holds for the holidays.

If you walk into any major grocery store during the holiday season, most likely you will be greeted by a person ringing a bell for the sake of donations. Plenty of events, like Toys for Tots, go on during this time of year, when people are supposedly in their most benevolent mood.

Usually I am immersed in messages of the good things people are doing during the holiday season, but it seems different this year.

In the month of December there have been three nationally publicized shootings: the mall shootings in Omaha, the church shootings in Brookfield, Wis., and the bus shootings in Nevada.

People are shot every day in America, that's a fact, but all of these shootings have been done in highly unusual places and, excluding the Nevada shooting, all of the shooters have been suicidal. A Sunday morning church service, a trip to the mall for holiday shopping, getting off the bus — no one expects to be shot in these situations.

Unsuspecting victims were injured and some died doing things that deserve no punishment.

These shootings have the sting of a drive-by, displaying the unfortunate injustice of unnecessary violence.

What strikes me about these shootings is that they have all been so close to each other, and all during the holiday season. The time that many of us look to as a savior from the craziness of school, a time to actually see our family, or a time to relax, seems to hold a different meaning now.

It's important for us to recognize what the holidays mean to us, and how fragile that meaning is. The benevolence and kindness that we try to promote during the holiday season should be spread throughout the entire year, and maybe things like this wouldn't happen.