Sunday, July 22, 2012

Aurora: A Few Days Later


 Friday morning, right after getting word about the shooting, I wrote a blog of my thoughts at the moment. Two days later, I thought I might revisit the tragedy.

We now know 70 people were shot, 12 are dead. Senselessly murdered.

Jessica Ghawi
Alex Sullivan
Jonathan Blunk
John Larimer
Matt McQuinn
Micalya Medek
Jesse Childress
Alexander Jonathan Boik
Alex Teves
Rebecca Ann Wingo
Gordon W. Cowden
Veronica Moser-Sullivan

Strangers who never met in life, are forever united in death. Each of these people had a life, a family, a story.

The final chapter of Alex Teves life will reflect he died to save another. The same is true of Jonathan Blunk and Matthew McQuinn. How any of us would react in the face of madness is anyone's guess. These three men made a split second decision which allowed another life to continue...as they lost their own.

No story is more haunting than that of Jessica Ghawi. At the scene of a previous mass shooting last month in Toronto, instinct saved her from being a victim there. As a person who has always lived by "trusting my gut," her death just weeks later by a mass murderer is extremely disturbing. And as someone who has watched too many episodes of "Lost" and "Fringe."  it makes me wonder if the timeline of her life was altered in Toronto and corrected in Aurora. Was her fate predetermined? That is something we can never hope to know or understand.

In the days, weeks and months ahead the focus of this tragedy will move from the victims to the alleged killer. For the families and friends of the dead, the horror of this event has only begun.

This Sunday morning, just take a minute to think of those lost. And to remember no one moment in your life is too be squandered.

Life is to be lived.
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3 comments:

  1. It's hard to fathom that something like this could happen. Eerily...Chelsea and her boyfriend were also at the movies that night here at home. To say I wasn't physically moved to nausea would be a lie. To think how easily life can be over. Only God knows our timeframe....and as you said....never squander a moment. Live life, every second, to its fullest!

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  2. It's sickening to think the gun lobby's only answer is to arm everyone. I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to live in a world where you have to go through a TSA event just to go to a movie, sporting event, see your kid perform in a school play or to the mall to go shopping.

    I just wish people would stop trying to score political points and work together to fix this problem.

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    1. All I've heard this past weekend is how many semi-automatic weapons have been sold at gun shows since the Newtown shooting. They can't keep them in stock...it's terrifying.

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