Right now, today, July 20th, there is wall-to-wall coverage of the slaughter at a theater in Aurora, Colorado, during the midnight showing of the new Batman movie. Why? Do people really want to hear all the gruesome details of how 12 people were killed and dozens of others injured? And why? Why would you want to know how this cold-blooded maniac, James Eagan Holmes, was dressed? Why would you want to hear eye-witness testimony from persons who were terrified and may even suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome? Why would you want to see interviews with grieving friends and relatives? Why would you want to see smiling photos of vibrant young people, now dead? I don't understand. Does the average person experience a special kind of pleasure in hearing about the hell that others went through? Do they feel safer knowing somebody else was brutally murdered somewhere else, not them? This isn't to say I don't do the same thing. I do. Though not in this case. I try to avoid coverage of this event because this is too horrible, too real. That's why I am so mystified. Is wishing to view the intense misery of others some primitive instinct we all have—the caveman who feels less vulnerable now that the tiger has eaten the children from the cave next door and won't be hungry for awhile? A horrible, horrible incident happened last night and people who were loved died in absolute terror and panic, leaving hundreds of grieving friends and family and we're all watching it as entertainment. Why?
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