I am so saddened by the events last night at the Batman premiere and my fervent prayers go out for the souls of the victims, the recovery of the wounded, and for their families. It is so horrible.
In watching all the coverage and commentary this morning, I have have a few thoughts and themes settling in my mind.
I am struck by the speed of it all. This happened just mere hours before I woke up this morning, but there were already dozens of commentaries and reactions to those commentaries, on-scene videos posted, and tons of spinning going on.
It is a despicable impulse of the modern commenting class to quickly try to affiliate the perpetrator of any atrocity with a political philosophy you oppose, evidence optional.
A most despicable example this morning had Brian Ross on ABC suggesting that the shooter is a Tea Party member because somebody on a CO Tea Party site had a similar name. The fact that that gent is 30 years older than the shooter was of no mind. To make such a suggestion on NO evidence is despicable.
In stupid response, outfits like Breitbart attempted to prove the opposite.
This behavior has no place in a civilized society….what was I saying?
Nitwits like Piers Morgan used the occasion to advocate for more gun control. Oh! If only we could be made safe from gun violence by binders full of laws and regulations. Oh, if only we could be safe like they are in Chicago. Knock. It. Off.
And the politicians. Why must politicians of all political persuasions run to a microphone within minutes of any tragedy or atrocity. I can provide my own context, thank you very much. Unless there is a looming threat, I don’t need, I don’t want to hear from you.
Again, the speed of things is startling. I found this unsettling story about a young woman killed in the shooting last night. We see her last tweets from the theater and even more bizarrely, we see her last blog post in which she wrote about barely escaping the gunman in that Toronto mall just six weeks ago. So sad, so bizarre, and so quick.
As you age, you learn to live with tragedy and loss, but the speed of it all sometimes seems too much.
