Tragedy

Last night / early this morning, a severely disturbed man broke into a movie theater that was showing The Dark Knight Rises, released a cannister of gas and opened fire with several weapons.  Current reports state that twelve people have died. 

They were doing what a lot of people were doing last night - seeing one of the most anticipated movies of the summer next to The Avengers.  And yet, this madman decided to enter the theater and cause havoc and grief.  I don't want to discuss theories about why he did it.  I don't even want to really discuss the concepts of gun control or the politics involved with such a terrible tragedy. 

What I do want to talk about, though, is the fact that this movie, The Dark Knight Rises, is about genuine evil.  The character Bane was designed to represent evil incarnate, showing no mercy for victims and no emotion other than pure anger.  He's a terrorist to his core and his only wish is to wreak havoc on Gotham.  And yet, Batman is there to save Gotham, like he had been in the previous two movies.  But there's no Batman in the real world. 

Fortunately, people can be heroes all the time and don't even need to wear a cape.  Look at that bus driver in New York that caught the little girl as she fell from three stories up earlier this week.  He's a hero.  Firefighters, police, military.  They're all heroes in their own way.  They risk their lives so that the general public can be safe.

And yes, you can say where were the police?  Several people died and a lot more were wounded but can you imagine what could have happened if there hadn't been some sort of response? 

I still plan on seeing The Dark Knight Rises - in fact, I have tickets for this afternoon.  While Joanna was a bit reticent to let me go for fear of anything happening, that is something that I can't think about.  It's my same theory about terrorism in general.  Terrorists attack things that we love and care about, or they attack close to home when we're not expecting it.  If we simply give up and become depressed and scared, the terrorists have won.  They live to strike "terror" into the lives of others.  My opinion is to get back up and keep living my life.  It will not be dictated to me by some guy randomly going into a movie theater and opening fire.

Am I scared of terrorists?  Yes.  Who wouldn't be?  Am I going to stop living my life because of this inciden?  Am I not going to go see a movie that I've wanted to see since The Dark Knight film ended?  No - unless the movie theater actually cancels the show (that's pending a phone call later).  Yes, I'll be cautious, but I am going to enjoy a fantastic film and yes, I might even cry.



Until next time.