As we arise this morning, we are met full-on with the kind of tragedy that fuels graphic novels. In fact, it was so unreal, many patrons in the Aurora, Colorado movie complex thought it was part of the midnight show: a masked man with weapons and a flak vest, tossing tear gas cannisters and raising his weapon at the audience--all to the background sounds of "Batman"...was this another Dark Knight, rising to perform, or a mortal enemy, co-opting the show? Even the gunfire sounded like a party cracker. Not until real people bled outright or felt bullets enter their own flesh did the violence take on real meaning. By then, it was too late. We got the final body count; the wounded; the dead; the lost children among the dead; all before our first cup o' joe. Summertime blockbuster season in America, circa: 2012.
The tweets came even as the bullets rained. Youtube already had footage taken on an Android phone by someone in the movieplex even as people ran screaming by...the blogs sprang up along with the talking t.v. heads: the journalists. Then, the print media and its postings online. Finally, before my scone and second cup, President Obama, on the podium, telling the crowd what one always says when such things occur: fragility of life; hug your children; be prayerful and quiet for a few moments; go on with your lives.
What the???!!!!!!!
Perhaps I have been around too long and seen too much real-life violence...but if one more person tells me to pause for a moment of silence--or hug some children--and consider the fragility of life--I may puke. I'm just done. These platitudes are too easily expressed. It doesn't matterif they are coming from Barrack or Mitt--they have come too often and too readily in the past. I want to see a president or a candidate express what we are all feeling: real horror. To take a moment, not for silence, but for tears. For outrage. For a call not to arms but to answers.
Pundits are saying it wasn't the fault of an excessively violent movie that promotes evil as much as good--sees villains as sexy and powerful as heroes--blurring the edges of right and wrong, rich and poor lusting for material goods, moral decay as something to play with. No, it wasn't the influence of the mega-million movie or its call to viewing as some sort of tribal rite of passage and extra Fourth of July/Mardi Gras/ Halloweenie celebration for the masses.
Pundits pin the blame on a mentally disturbed, ostracized white boy with issues that should have been held in check by his far-away family.Yup. No one is looking at how many of these individuals exist and more importantly: why do they exist? Why does this profile keep popping up? There are cries for help. Cracks in the surface that many will look back upon and say they noticed but didn't know what to do...A mental health system in tatters...a public school system leaking children and families...a private school system which only perpetuates the schism between the haves and have nots, and allows the haves to dangle what they have over the cages of the starving have nots and laugh, while doing it...an economic system that has already assured us, mostly through the media--social and otherwise--that the new generation will never have their own homes; will mostly not succeed even half as much as their parents; will probably get cancer or die in a global war or be burned up from an environment pissed off at its human sychophants--and that the no-longer respected nor revered "elders" will be left alone to wither, without social security or health care or families willing to deal with multi-generational conflicts and aging.
We are left with a system that prolongs the lives of many without adding one iota to the quality of those lives...in fact, detracts and then bills them for the longevity! There should be no moment of silence for the dead; nor for the living. Instead, there should be a roar of upset; of protest; of crying that expunges the horror. Be loud. Demand answers. Demand QUESTIONS...only when we begin the dialogue will real healing and real solutions reveal themselves.
It is the system that is broken. On all sides. Including the spiritual. If we don't begin to examine and to accept this--as well as the necessity of solving these critical issues--more and more of these blood-soaked mornings will fill our days.
It is NOT about hugging your kids tighter. It's about what kind of world, on every level, are we willing to rebuild?
The tweets came even as the bullets rained. Youtube already had footage taken on an Android phone by someone in the movieplex even as people ran screaming by...the blogs sprang up along with the talking t.v. heads: the journalists. Then, the print media and its postings online. Finally, before my scone and second cup, President Obama, on the podium, telling the crowd what one always says when such things occur: fragility of life; hug your children; be prayerful and quiet for a few moments; go on with your lives.
What the???!!!!!!!
Perhaps I have been around too long and seen too much real-life violence...but if one more person tells me to pause for a moment of silence--or hug some children--and consider the fragility of life--I may puke. I'm just done. These platitudes are too easily expressed. It doesn't matterif they are coming from Barrack or Mitt--they have come too often and too readily in the past. I want to see a president or a candidate express what we are all feeling: real horror. To take a moment, not for silence, but for tears. For outrage. For a call not to arms but to answers.
Pundits are saying it wasn't the fault of an excessively violent movie that promotes evil as much as good--sees villains as sexy and powerful as heroes--blurring the edges of right and wrong, rich and poor lusting for material goods, moral decay as something to play with. No, it wasn't the influence of the mega-million movie or its call to viewing as some sort of tribal rite of passage and extra Fourth of July/Mardi Gras/ Halloweenie celebration for the masses.
Pundits pin the blame on a mentally disturbed, ostracized white boy with issues that should have been held in check by his far-away family.Yup. No one is looking at how many of these individuals exist and more importantly: why do they exist? Why does this profile keep popping up? There are cries for help. Cracks in the surface that many will look back upon and say they noticed but didn't know what to do...A mental health system in tatters...a public school system leaking children and families...a private school system which only perpetuates the schism between the haves and have nots, and allows the haves to dangle what they have over the cages of the starving have nots and laugh, while doing it...an economic system that has already assured us, mostly through the media--social and otherwise--that the new generation will never have their own homes; will mostly not succeed even half as much as their parents; will probably get cancer or die in a global war or be burned up from an environment pissed off at its human sychophants--and that the no-longer respected nor revered "elders" will be left alone to wither, without social security or health care or families willing to deal with multi-generational conflicts and aging.
We are left with a system that prolongs the lives of many without adding one iota to the quality of those lives...in fact, detracts and then bills them for the longevity! There should be no moment of silence for the dead; nor for the living. Instead, there should be a roar of upset; of protest; of crying that expunges the horror. Be loud. Demand answers. Demand QUESTIONS...only when we begin the dialogue will real healing and real solutions reveal themselves.
It is the system that is broken. On all sides. Including the spiritual. If we don't begin to examine and to accept this--as well as the necessity of solving these critical issues--more and more of these blood-soaked mornings will fill our days.
It is NOT about hugging your kids tighter. It's about what kind of world, on every level, are we willing to rebuild?
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