I haven't really discussed what happened in Aurora, CO last Thursday night, but so far it seems to have created the WRONG IMPRESSION, clearly. So allow me to elaborate my feelings:
A month ago, I sit on my computer and I debate whether I go at the Scarecrow or Ra's Al Ghul for the midnight showing of TDKR; a premiere I've been waiting for nearly 4 years. I have always enjoyed dressing up and getting into Batman movies... it's been a part of my life since I was born, ask my family and friends; it's an obsession. LOL But to stay on topic, I decided the Scarecrow would be fun, I dressed up along with a few of my friends and enjoyed one of the greatest nights of my life... enjoying a movie that was an amazing spectacle.
When I returned home after a day of fun, I see my mom watching the news and informs me that a guy in a mask comes into a movie theater and opens fire on everyone. Many dead, many more in the hospital. I still at this moment do not know what possessed this man to go off and slaughter innocents... but it's a crime against nature and will be engraved into my mind as unforgivable. While I watched the tapes posted on the tv, I couldn't help but think one thing: it was a stark night and a boy runs out of the theater excitedly pretending to be Zorro, and little did the boy know that his life would be changed forever. Where his parents would be shot dead in Crime Alley, and where he would become the Batman.
It's people like James Holmes why such an iconic character would become a man at the age of 8, holding sitting besides his dead parents and become a masked vigilante: NEVER did it cross my mind that I would see the day when it was completely the other way around. When I think of someone who hides their face behind a mask, it is meant to protect the ones you love... not yourself. *shrug* All I can say is that I was out to have fun for one night and spend it with people who're big Bat fans like me; to hear people who are fanatics like me where shot ruthlessly is heart breaking.
My sympathies and best of wishes go out to every single loved one who lost someone they loved that night, and the world can find balance in things again. We can do more to prevent tragedies like this from happening, but hiding behind the fear of other people in masks that they might do something horrendous is not the way. If you keep closely within that nutshell, then you might as well tell your children to stop dressing up for Halloween or deny people's talents with Cosplay and not have them dress up for Comic Con. We cannot live without hope and put distrust into everyone because they put on a mask; I cannot believe it would take only ONE MAN to see a half empty theater on an opening day at the movies. I can't say that I blame you... it is frightening, and we all fear death.
But we cannot be lead astray, not like this. Tighten up security by putting up a few cameras in movie theaters and outside of their parking lots, hire more people for security officers, perhaps put a metal detector or two by the doors. We can ALL do more... but all that is being done is hiding in insanity and making shields with extreme laws and decrees. Take control before bigger people do: otherwise, natural First Amendment rights will no longer be rights and become restrictions.
All I ask that let's be more than what others make us; because we can be.
