A brutal reminder of our mortality

A heavily armed gunman attacked an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater early Friday, tossing tear gas before opening fire on the terrified audience and killing 12 and wounding 38, authorities said. The theater was showing the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.”

One of the injured was just 3 months old, hospital workers said.

The shooting unfolded inside a darkened theater packed with Batman fans, some in costume for the movie’s premiere. Screaming, panicked moviegoers scrambled to escape from the black-clad gunman, who wore a gas mask and randomly shot as he walked up the theater’s steps, witnesses said.­—CNN

Hug your kids today. Give your parents a call. Tell your friends just how much they mean to you. It sounds cliché to say, but you really never know in this life.

Forget this whole nonsense about “Bane” and “Bain.” Put aside politics for a minute. I make fun of Hollywood a lot, and deservedly so. The most notable celebs are—almost by a rule—completely insane. But movies can have pretty powerful messages. And this entire Batman series has been about the triumph of good versus evil, the inherent goodness in the hearts of mankind, keeping faith in people, and sacrifice.

It can be hard to buy into those concepts when we hear about such things on the news, but it is certainly better than the alternative. Through all of the tragedy, Bruce Wayne continued to fight for and believe in the people of Gotham. To quote Batman, this world is “full of people ready to believe in good.”