Thoughts on the Colorado Cinema Tragedy

It seems as though the world gets worse each and every day. That, or we just never noticed how bad the world was until recently. We've never been more connected on a global scale than we are right now. With social sites, youtube, blogs, smart phones and more, as soon as something terrible happens, the news is spread all over.

I was working late last night editing promos for HubTV. I was exhausted but I finally wrapped up about 2:30am or so. I figured I'd do one more quick stroll around the internet before turning in for the night. My first stop, Facebook. Someone had commented on one of my earlier status' where I was whining that I couldn't get tickets to the midnight release of The Dark Knight Rises. I said it looked like fun. The commenter simply said, "Not in Colorado ;("



At first I thought for some stupid reason the film was banned or unable to be seen in Colorado. It took mere seconds for me to find an article talking of the tragedy.

If, by some miracle, you don't know what happened, a filmgoer entered a full theater after Nolan's film began, and opened fire. Official reports were hard to come by at first, but it looks like 12 people died and 59 were injured. Some of those injured were kids. A 3 month old was admitted to the hospital after the event, and a 6 year old was shot.

I was reeling the rest of the night. Crying and angry I didn't climb into bed until after 5am. I wouldn't have if I weren't so tired. I couldn't even fall asleep then, I had to wake my wife to help me calm down.

Any tragedy like this would get to me anyway, but it was made worse by involving children and in some wierd way, because it happened at a theater. I grew up going to the Cinema, it is one of my fondest memories of my family together. Even now, when I go to the theater, it still holds some magic for me. After this, I can't imagine going to the theater and wondering if the next person who walks in might take a shot at me. I'm terrified to take my kids.

Of course, I won't give up going to the cinema, ever. I won't let psychos like this killer rule my life. But I will always have the thought in the back of my head. The theater is no longer my safe space.

I can't help but feel terrible for all those involved. A film fan who can no longer feel safe doing what they love, a child who probably struggles with understanding what even happened, or a theater employee who feels the guilt of thinking they should have done something to stop it. If I can feel sick to my stomach just hearing about it, I can't imagine what they must feel having been there.

Even as I write this I have to pause to breath. My thoughts go out to all those involved and to the fallen, rest in peace.