I, like the rest of the world, woke up this morning to the news of the shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado. Since I heard about it, I’ve felt sick to my stomach and overwhelmingly sad for those poor people who just wanted to enjoy themselves at a movie. Now, every single person who was in that movie theater – patrons and employees alike – will have their lives changed forever.
What the fuck is wrong with people?
How does someone become so dysfunctional in the head to convince themselves to carry out a plot to actually shoot at people?! What possible motive could they think is strong enough? Can’t use bullying. Can’t use desperate for money. Can’t use self-defense. All I can come up with is evil, pure evil.
Those poor people who were at that theater. For the rest of their lives, they’ll look at their surroundings just a little bit differently; they’ll never feel 100% safe again because the sad truth is that there is nowhere completely safe.
As of right now, we have only heard about one of the 12 victims because her story is particularly chilling: On June 2, she escaped a mall shooting while on vacation in Toronto. Her blog post about it was retweeted on Twitter by several people on my feed and her brother issued what he said will be the only comment the family will be giving right now. His account of what happened is just awful. I am sure this is the first of many sad stories we will hear about lives cut too short.
Life is too fragile and can be too short. I see the political debates blowing up my Twitter feed right now, so I just wanted to say one last thing. Before you jump into any political discussion over what happened (I will not be doing so), just remember to hug your loved ones. It could be the last time you ever see them.
