The wall to wall news coverage of the massacre in Aurora, Colorado, today has everyone a bit more nervous than we were yesterday. The recent Tuscaloosa bar shooting and now this nightmare have us all peering around to see who looks like they may be about to flip out.
It could have happened anywhere and one of our children could have been in that theatre, innocently waiting to see the much hyped Batman production of “Dark Night Rises.” Heck, if I’d been in Aurora, I might have bought a ticket because I spent my college days rushing over to the Tri-Delta House at 6:30 every evening to watch Batman and Robin with my sorority sisters.
Over the garden fence this morning, Brenda and I had a high level discussion of the event, and we are blaming television and the movies. Irony huh?
Sometimes you’ve just got to blame someone. We reminisced about the movies we saw as children – Bambi, The Sound of Music, and Pollyanna. The most violent movies featured those crazy guys, the Three Stooges, who performed such startling maneuvers like butting heads.
Special effects get louder and more graphic with each passing year. It seems like it’s no fun unless someone’s head gets blown to bits and the house shakes on its foundation.
Brenda and I decided society needs a kick in the butt and a few days in silent reflection to realize what we have and what we are giving up each time we push the envelope.