Displaced Hate

This is an excerpt from Stephen Christian's blog post, "how very fragile." on modesty.blogspot.com.

"Sometimes I let my mind wander to the events of the day of a person who loses their life. They wake up, like every other day and brush their teeth, put on their favorite t-shirt, have a bowl of cereal, and on their way to work they stop at the gas station to fill up. Then it happens. Out of nowhere, and when they woke up just hours before they had no idea."

Scary.

This was the reality for several people in Aurora, Colorado, as during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, a gunman by the name of James Holmes shot and killed 12 people, as well as injuring 38 others. Lives, changed. Families, broken. Faith, shaken.

Holmes reportedly wore a bulletproof vest, donned a gas mask, and shot with a rifle and two handguns. So now, the media bites. It's near Columbine, it's about gun control, it's about affected youth, it's about the families, the sadness, the hate, the lunacy, and the completely unfortunate circumstances behind it all.

One victim's name came to the forefront early. Her name, Jessica Ghawi. She went by Jessica Redfield on Twitter. She planned to be a sports journalist, described as an "amazing...vivacious person" by herfriend Natalie Tejeda on CNN's Newsroom this afternoon. People that knew her on Twitter talked about how she had all the skills to become a prominent figure in the future.

I'm sure she did. To those who work hard, go above and beyond and who strive to be the best, that's when people recognize personal drive. Tejeda talked about how Ghawi's motto was that she wasn't here to come in second or third place. She wanted to be the best. I can easily relate to that. I know the feeling.

As a result of this shooting, it has blown up on social networking. People crying foul for change. People crying, grieving, staring reality in the face. Sometimes we need a break from these cruel realities, but when they come back, they ground us. People are people. We're reminded we don't deserve the hate and the gossip that we're all guilty of.

It just kills you inside when you realize you're not living for the right reasons sometimes. We should all be afforded the chance to live our dreams, at least for a day. The youngest victim of this unfortunate act was three months old. That person didn't even get a chance to live out any dreams, let alone many moments at all.

It all goes back to Christian's blog. They probably just went through normal circumstances, and in the span of moments, it was all over. Ghawi was on a date with a mutual friend, tweeting just moments before her death to Jesse Spector, a fellow hockey writer. Her last tweet was a sarcastic, loud cry that Spector said is like a haunting echo.

We may cry for change, but I think of it this way. It could be right, it could be wrong. Even if law exists or not, if people want something that bad, they will get it. Remember as a child, if mom said we couldn't have a cookie, and we wanted it that bad, what did we do? We knew we had the capacity to get the cookie, so we did everything we could to have it, and we had it, regardless of circumstances.

It's a basic instinct.

My thoughts, prayers, whatever have you, are going to the victims of this attack...the families of those whose lives were changed forever by the senseless act of killing fellow people.

What's the point of this all? Just live your life, and surround yourself with the people you want to be around. Try your best to find a way to love your enemy, because in the end, they're just people too. We're all human. We're all in this together, on the same planet in a vast universe.

I'm going to try my best to live my life as vivaciously as I can. I've learned that no matter what, I have to be me. You can love me, or you can hate me, but I will continue to go through life as Jordan Kuhns. That's how it began, and that's how it will end.

God bless.