My thoughts on yesterday

It’s obviously impossible to write anything humorous today in the wake of the Aurora, Colorado shootings yesterday. My heart goes out to all the friends and families of the victims. When I was in Denver earlier this year I met a young man who was a student of Columbine and there that fateful day. He recounted the whole ghastly tale. It’s one thing to watch the news coverage and its snippets of people who were on the scene, and it’s another to hear a first-person detailed account of just what it was like to actually be in that massacre.

We talked about the aftermath. He lost several close friends. It’s taken him years to move on. Not that he still isn't haunted by the tragedy, but he’s able to channel his energies and cope. Many of his friends were not so lucky. You just hear about the number of dead or wounded. But the collateral damage to those also present is enormous and permanent.

For the rest of us, now comes the period of grief and trying to make sense of it. The theories will be voiced. Violence of the movies will be blamed. The easy accessibility of firearms (a gun store is even one of the radio sponsors of the Colorado Rockies). Video games will be accused. I’m sure Rush Limbaugh will pin this on Obama. But the truth of course is that there is no way to make sense of it. There never is.

But then there’s this.

On Friday morning, even after the shooting, Warner Brothers was pairing THE DARK KNIGHT RISES with a trailer for a movie called GANGSTER SQUAD. In the trailer there’s a scene of someone in a movie theater shooting people with a machine gun. What the fuck? Why wasn’t that pulled IMMEDIATELY? Deadline Hollywood’s Nikki Finke called Warner Brothers to complain; was told “there would be a meeting about it”, and only then was it pulled. A meeting?  They needed a meeting?  They needed a consensus?   If Ms. Finke didn’t call would that trailer have been shown all day? Did Warner Brothers NEED to be called out before yanking this trailer? I’m just mystified.

Then you go to the CNN website and as part of their coverage they present a timeline for the worst U.S. mass shootings.   Are we comparing them now?   Meanwhile, on GOOD MORNING AMERICA yesterday the shooter was erroneously linked to the Tea Party.  Again, what the fuck?!

At a certain point I stopped watching the coverage.  There may be new details that I'm not aware of at this moment.  But I don't care.  Because it seems the more I learn the angrier I get.  So I'll just process it myself this weekend.  And send out prayers and my best wishes to all concerned... which means all of us.