The Aurora Tragedy and Why We Must Reject Fear

The Aurora, Colo., community suffered a great tragedy last night, as a gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, killing 12 people and wounding 59 more. For any of us sitting in a movie theater last night watching this film, we could have been those victims. Ordinary people who had come together to enjoy a shared experience, innocent of any wrongdoing, their only error being in that theater at that time.

Our society has seen too many of these tragedies over the past few years. For my generation, we lived through Columbine during middle school and came of age in a post-Sept. 11 world, teaching us from our youth that there is evil in this world, and that at any time, our lives could come to an end.

We should never live in fear though. We should never be afraid to leave our homes, to go to school, to board an airplane or to sit in a movie theater and enjoy a movie. These lives, no matter how short or how long, are our lives. Don't relinquish control of your life due to the actions of evil men. Never fear doing what makes us happy. The Aurora shootings shouldn't send us scurrying back into our houses, afraid of what lurks beyond our doors. While we remember the victims, we can't let fear darken our lives.

Reports of Warner Bros. canceling this weekend's screenings of The Dark Knight Rises are thankfully false. This film didn't cause the shooting. Movies or pop culture didn't cause the shooting. One sick, deranged person did. In the scope of the universe, movies are a tiny, insignificant things, but they are points of light that we rally around, that bring us together. For just a few hours, we are transformed from strangers to a community bonding together. We shouldn't deprive the families and friends who have plans to see The Dark Knight Rises together this weekend of that experience.

I love the movies. The people who died in Aurora last night loved the movies. Never in their wildest dreams could they have predicted what happened last night. It was a random act of violence. Every day when we leave our homes, we accept that the world is a random place.

Don't be afraid.