The Colorado Theater Shooting

The above memorial image has been passing around various websites and social media upon which comic book and science fiction fans gather. It may seem kind of silly to someone not familiar with fandom, but it is quite meaningful to those in fandom. Whoever made this had a sense of the classic Batman--the one whose motivation to be a hero is because he does not want anyone to die senselessly. It is a point made all the more sad with the currently reported rumor gunman James Holmes was obsessed with the character.

I did not want to write anything about the shooting. It is not that I do not care. Far from it. My heart goes out to the victims, their families, and friends. This morning, I heard one of the surviving victim’s father interviewed by phone. He was in another state, and only knew his son’s condition by phone communication with his son from the the hospital. The man was clearly in shock, because he did not clean up anything he had heard of the incident. When the shooting started, he and his girlfriend dove unto the floor. They crawled in opposite directions until she screamed she had been hit. Her boyfriend crawled back over to her, but she had suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head. The boyfriend managed to crawl away again without realizing he had been shot in the hip.

I will be honest, my reaction to that story would often be taking a mocking tone towards the boyfriend for abandoning his girlfriend. But I felt such a sense of empathy about the situation even though I have thankfully never been there myself. They are both trapped, confused, and scared. There is no where to escape when 30 rounds of semiautomatic weapon fire are flying for fifteen solid minutes among a cloud of irritating smoke. Self-preservation kicks in during such hopeless situations. Listening to this terrified father tell the story in such a raw manner, I do not believe he had time to absorb it, either. So yes, I care. I am feeling it.

What I wanted to avoid was the early hour speculation that I knew would come. The progressives would call for tighter gun control. The conservatives would blame violent television, movies, and music. I bitterly marvel at the current twist of pinning political affiliations and motivations without one scintilla of evidence. One of the first things I heard this morning, I think before I had even learned Holmes’ name, were accusations which have since been retracted he was part of the Tea party. Later on in the day, I have heard some say Holmes is actually a registered Democrat. As if that really matters. Holmes is a complete lunatic who played out the delusional fantasy of the joker’s “agent of chaos" modus operandi from The Dark Knight with deadly consequences.

The uninformed political finger pointing has stopped, but it is doubtful any party feels much shame. I mean, really…it was not that long ago the usual suspects were making the same knee jerk regarding the Arizona shootings. It turned out there Jared lee Loughnor was not politically motivated, but was insane and eventually determined mentally unfit to stand trial. We did not get a patient media waiting for the facts before reporting. We did not get discussions on mental health. We got the same devoid of facts hysteria we got back them, with no sense of shame at the repeat performance.

Obviously, I did not want to add to any of that by writing earlier, but I did not want to write any frivolous posts today while skipping the shootings, either. All I can say is take a moment to appreciate what really happened last night. An insane man committed a terrible act for no other reason than his fevered mind decided it would be a good idea. Remember the victims. But for the grace of God, we are all buffeted helplessly by twists of fate both for the tragic and joyous. But do not let the actions of the deranged alter the way you live your life. We cannot let people like Holmes win.