Unless you've been living under a
rock, you've no doubt heard about the Colorado massacre during the premiere of
the newest Batman movie: a devastating crime that ended 12 lives and wounded
many more both physically and emotionally. Violent acts of this nature are no
longer anomalies. They happen in schools, at neighbourhood BBQs, inside shopping
malls, on the streets. Shootings aren’t gang-related events that only happen in
the ‘ghetto’. Somehow they made themselves a home right in everyone’s backyard.
*****
When I was a kid I was out the
door as soon as I scarfed down breakfast. I hopped on my bike and was off to
collect my friends for the day's adventures. We had neighbourhood boundaries
that we stayed in and we were home for supper and then again when the street
lights came on, but we had free reign to play. There was a sense of security that
allowed for this freedom because where we lived there were parents and
neighbours and Block Parents if we needed help. No one was afraid to knock on
people's doors to sell garbage bags for the school fundraiser. It wasn’t
unheard of to make new friends at the park and play at their house that same
day. And then the simplicity of childhood was taken from us.
I'll never forget it.
There was no hiding it and maybe
events like these were always widespread by rumours and the ever-explicit
media. It seemed to me at the time that this was the biggest thing to ever
happen in the history of the world. We were no longer allowed out of sight of
an adult. At all times. Our boundaries were confined to the end of the street
and there were no more bike rides to the store with our weekly allowance. I
still to this day look skeptically at large vans.
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka’s
pictures were plastered everywhere and everyone was talking about it. Educating
children about Stranger Danger became the number one priority for adults. It
was difficult to find someone who didn’t know someone who knew Kristen French
or Leslie Mahaffy. The word abduction became all too familiar. Our world had
been changed forever.
Just the same way that the
Columbine shooting changed how teenagers go to school.
The way some people in Toronto
will never view shopping or a BBQ the same way again.
The way James Holmes has taken the
joy out of seeing a movie. And Batman.
****
I think to myself, what will the
world be like when Brennan is old enough to understand these things? If from my
childhood I only remember 1 scary event and in Brennan’s less than 3 years of life, I can count so many horrific, tragic events that they're not even shocking anymore...I am more than
concerned. He’s going to hear about them, there’s no sheltering kids anymore,
especially with the internet and social media. A prime example: we were leaving
the ROM the day it happened and I overheard the security guards talking about
it:
“What
do you mean you haven’t heard about Colorado?”
“I
don’t have the internet at home.”
“Come
on man, the radio? You haven’t heard anything about the shooting?”
I
was at Costco today and an employee was telling the all of the gruesome details to a customer who was flipping through a Batman book.
It’s
in every newspaper and on all the news channels. You can’t really escape it.
We teach our children about
finding the good in people, in the greater good of humanity; the importance of
forgiveness and in giving second chances; to take risks.
And then it’s no longer safe to go
to school without metal detectors because it’s not enough for random strangers
to be a possible threat, but now their peers are too. And a 24-year old
neuroscience major. What will I say to him when he asks ‘why’?
What has happened to James Holmes
to lead him to such extremes? How did society fail him to the point of becoming
responsible for a massacre? I am not defending this man, but I have to believe
that people are not inherently born ready to kill strangers. That there has to
be some strange combination of genetics and nature (and I don’t necessarily
mean just family here) that lead to such tragedy.
I remember reading about Heath
Ledger after playing the role of The Joker in Batman: The Dark Knight. He had
filmed half of the movie before his accidental overdose.
Ledger
recently told reporters he "slept an average of two hours a night"
while playing "a psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with
zero empathy ...
"I
couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still
going."
Prescription
drugs didn't help, he said.
Tony
Timpone, editor of the fantasy magazine Fangoria, said the movie should do
well, despite the "cloud over it" from Ledger's death.
"It's
going to be tough, because the Joker is such an indelible character, and Heath
was such an indelible actor. It could be tough to disassociate ourselves from
reality. Because the movie looks like it's going to be so dark, and his life had
such a dark end."
Articles like these often hinted at Ledger’s role as The Joker ultimately leading to his death. Will
the media put the same spin on this story? With the accused apparently not
talking, it leaves one to speculate doesn't it? And that sadly is what qualifies for 'good news'. Was it extreme mental illness? Drugs? A bizarre quest for fame? A case of a copy cat? Over-exposure to violence? There are endless possibilities and even if/when the answer does come
out, I fear I will still not be able to explain to my beautiful, innocent son, how something like this can happen in his world.
