The weekend was kicked off with the Dark Knight Rises on Friday evening. We bought our tickets weeks ago, but little did I know what would occur between then and now. As most everyone in the country knows, during a midnight showing of the Dark Knight, a gunman entered an Aurora, Colorado movie theater and unleashed havoc in the form of bullets, killing 12 and wounding dozens more on Friday morning.
When I woke up Friday morning, I saw the news articles plastered all over Facebook and on the internet. My initial thought was, "Oh no, not again." And as I continued to read those articles, without fail, almost every one included a paragraph about Littleton, Colorado, a mere 20 miles away.
Fourteen years ago, if I mentioned I was from Littleton, people would hardly react - they'd simply ask where that was and if I liked it there. But as of April 20, 1999, that changed. Now when I say I'm from Littleton, people pause and say, "Ohh," as if they're not sure how to continue the conversation. It's something I've unfortunately grown used to over the years.
As the news reports continued regarding the Aurora shooting, without fail, the ultimate comparison was made. Broadcasters proclaimed, "This is the state's largest shooting since Columbine," as if it's some sort of achievement to outdo what Dylan and Eric did so many years ago.
But I'd be lying if I said I didn't have my own flashbacks to that day. With the news of this shooting came a flood of memories; my classmates crying in gym class as they told me what happened, the school lock-down, the helicopters swarming overhead, not being able to reach my parents because all the phone lines were jammed, running a dead sprint home so I could hug my mom, huddling around the television trying to find out all the details, my dad trying to reach us from Texas, learning of the friends we had lost and those injured, paying our respects at Clement Park, our church Pastor burying Dylan and the aftermath that came, and the constant analyzing of what we could have done better, what we missed, what didn't we see? And the realization that at the end of the day, "We Are All Columbine."
I have a lot of mixed emotions when it comes to this latest shooting. Anger, sadness, disbelief. My heart goes out to all those wounded, killed, and affected by this heinous act. And my heart breaks for a state that has been rifled with extreme loss, from Columbine to this year's devastating wild fires to the Aurora shooting.
As I watch the news unfold, I wonder what life will be like for my future children. After Columbine, my school experience was drastically different in many ways, not to mention my own life and personal views on school violence and bullying. And one has to wonder, will going to the movies become an altered experience now too? Will my children be able to live in a world without metal detectors and heightened security? It's doubtful as the very places we're supposed to be safe, continue to become outright danger zones.
And so now, the comparisons will continue. The media will try to "dissect" the brain of a mass murderer - Why did he do it? Did he have a rough childhood? Was he mentally unstable? What signs did we miss? How can we prevent this from happening again? To be honest, I don't care. The fact is, he chose to murder innocent lives and at the end of the day those are the people who matter. Let's talk about them and the impact they had. This man, he doesn't deserve to even be mentioned, let alone given his 15 minutes of fame in the media spotlight.
Because the truth is, no one will ever really know why he chose to act this way. At the end of the day, no one will be able to understand what drove this madman to inflict such pain and violence on a theater of innocent move goers, just as I will never understand why Dylan and Eric chose to unleash their own pain and misery on their classmates and my friends on that fateful day in April 1999. The fact remains, these are trying and dangerous times. I only pray there's a light at the end of the tunnel and this senseless violence stops. Until then, I'll keep all those victims in my heart, mind, and prayers.
Stay strong Colorado. Stay strong.
