It would be crazy to think of putting yourself in the shoes of the man who killed and wounded so many in Aurora, Colorado. Do it anyway. It would be crazy to think of yourself as the parent of someone who, just a few days ago, was seeking a Ph.D. in neuroscience, but is today looking at life in prison. Do it anyway. It would be crazy to think anyone besides James Holmes had anything to do with what happened. After all, he made the choices and the decisions. Do it anyway.
Someone, somewhere at some point knew something was going to happen and didn't report it. Mark my words and take no heart in them: Someone is going to speak to reporters about what they knew, and no one, not a single person, is going to call them the hell out: "Why on Earth didn't you say something, anything?" What were they thinking? "No harm, no foul"? "It's not my business"?
This was not the work of the devil, and no, you and yours weren't spared because of God's will, divine intervention, or some such shit. If that were true, what in the hell would you say if you came face to face with one of the victims' families? "Sorry 'bout your luck"? What kind of sorry excuse for a human being would you have to be to say such a thing to anyone whose child, whose friend, whose loved one was just murdered?
As I have written numerous times to no avail, will you please finally, this time, this instance, this number of deaths, this number of critically injured, will you please for the love of all that is sacred, just read what I've written and do what I tell you to do. Will you not take notes, pass them 'round, make your friends and family aware? Will you not shame them and yourself for not telling what you know?
Article comments
1 - The Other Chad
Wow, really? You win the award for most presumtuous and condescending article on Blogcritics today.
You're not inside the mind of this murderer. Nor do you have it on any kind of authority what those connected to him knew or didn't know. You can try to compare this to any other mass shooting, but the details are still emerging - so I suggest you let them emerge. Then spout off.
2 - Janet
It's so hard to make any kind of sense out of such a tragedy. Your point that people should not be afraid to speak up when they sense something is wrong is an important one. Problem is, not everyone is strong enough to do so.
3 - Igor
Put 300million people in a space, harass them constantly with stress: deep indebtedness, possible homelessness, threat of professional failure, withhold healthcare, withhold mental healthcare, demand more, give less, cut public funding, put them on a treadmill to oblivion, and leave them friendless and hopeless.
Then add in easy access to deadly weapons.
Stir it together and you get "Suicide by police".
It happens every day.
4 - Sherry
@Igor - I don't see any evidence this was "suicide by police." He might be seeking fame for all we know. I like how people are blaming "the system" instead of the shooter. I'm sorry, I know there are a lot of problems, but leaving people friendless, this is not a government responsibility. This guy was in early 20's and a doctoral candidate - so how is he a victim of "the system?" This guy killed people in cold blood. Right now we have no idea what is mental state was or is in. We don't that anyone knew he was going to do it. We do know he had the capacity to plan this whole thing, and booby trap his apartment. It's not like this was an act of desperation, it was carefully planned. Seriously, why don't you want to blame the criminal?
5 - Richard Hurts
I wonder if this would've been a bigger deal if a afro-american "gangster" was the one who had shot up the place? Then they would've had a reason to "blame the system" because they had cut his welfare check! For all we know James could've just shot up the place because he didn't get to the theatre in time to purchase a ticket for the midnight release!