A Dark Night Indeed: Making Sense of the Batman Movie Massacre

I think we can all agree: the world is very different place than it was when we were growing up. With technology advancing at a breakneck pace and the planet getting smaller and smaller (figuratively), it gets harder and harder to shelter our kids from the harsh realities of life and the real monsters that go bump in the night. But we try.

To many of us the world doesn’t makes a lot of sense, but to keep our children innocent, to preserve what small semblance of a childhood our children have left, we must try our very best to make rhyme and reason of those events that would have us all hiding under our covers, to help both our children, and ourselves, sleep well through the night. But it’s not often easy, as some things cannot be explained. Some things make no sense at all. Some things cannot be wished away- no matter how we try.

What makes a man prey on innocent victims in the darkness? What prompts him to put on a bulletproof vest and a gas mask? What possesses him to arm himself with smoke bombs and semi-automatic weapons and start picking off patrons in a packed movie theater when there was no escape? I don’t know. What makes a man enter an auditorium and open fire on helpless people- men, women and children- without a second thought? What makes him feel nothing as they run, and scream and hide? I cannot imagine. What overcomes someone so strongly that they feel that they need to kill the innocent to immortalize themselves? I have no explanation, but still we- you and I both- have to make sense of it all.

The Batman Movie Massacre, as it has been called, is one of the most gruesome mass shootings in U.S. history- 12 dead and more injured than could fit inside two large school buses. It is a sad day for America, the injured, the families, and the world. A man took the lives of the innocent, and in doing so he took away our innocence. But you can’t let him win. 

A man entered a theater with the intent of taking away the hopes and dreams of a nation. He set out to destroy the memories of our childhood, and a hero that made us believe that good would always prevail. He wants us to fear the darkness, and to keep us in the “safety” of our homes. He wants us to believe that there is nowhere for us to hide, but he’s wrong. We don’t need to hide at all. 

As a man I am saddened by the events that occurred on Friday July 20^th  at a packed theater in Aurora, Colorado. As a North American I am disheartened by what I see on the daily news. But as a Father I will not hide. I will live my life and teach my children to do the same so that these kinds of sadistic acts- against all of us- do not get rewarded with fear. Colorado will recover (we pray) in time, so will America, and so will the world from this most heinous of acts. 

Evil will not win. The villain, the coward, the weak and feeble-minded fiend who feeds on our nightmares is not to be feared, he is to be pitied as he is the ultimate loser, for he is truly lost…while we still have our heroes. They are everywhere. Don’t let one man’s callous act make us forget that there is good in the world. We need them. Our children need them. 

Related Links:

Batman Shooting - ABCNews.com