Another Tragedy Near Home

By this late morning hour, most people have heard about the shooting during the midnight premiere showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora.  I've been trying to process the information all morning.  We may never have the answers to my questions, but I can't help wondering why this young man shot up the theater.  He killed a dozen people, injured dozens more, and his victims included babies, kids, and teenagers.  I ache to know a motive, to hear his demented reasoning.  I ache for the families who lost loved ones and are left imagining the fear and pain of friends and family members who were in that theater with the gunman.

All these news stories are saying there's no link between this man and terrorists, but that doesn't mean his rampage wasn't a form of terrorism.  It most certainly was.

I've lived in Colorado for fifteen years now.  I went to high school in Englewood when the Columbine massacre happened in Littleton, and I lived just a couple miles away from the Deer Creek Middle School shooting that happened last year.  It scares me to think of the risk of sending my kids to school here.  The shooters made me afraid of public places, and that is terrorism.  Two years ago, a man tried to set a bomb off at the mall near my house.  In the wee hours of the morning today, that gunman opened fire at a mall theater across town.

It made me realize that terrorism doesn't just occur abroad.  It's not something that just people in the Middle East have to deal with.  I hear of stories of people blowing themselves up in places like Israel, and I think how scary it is--but it's far away from me and seems like a different world.  Yet, how are these shootings and bombings that different?  The truth is, we have to deal with it here, at home, in America, at the hands of other Americans.

How can I protect my kids when these massacres are random?  The answer is: I can't.  I don't want to lock my kids up at home and teach them to live in fear.

I am so sorry for all the people affected by the tragedy this morning.  I hope everyone can eventually find healing.  Hug your little ones a little tighter today, as we are all reminded how fragile our lives are.

Love & Peace to all my readers.