This evening, as I watch the "talking heads" chatter on television in abject horror and numbed shock, I have begun

to feel a burning coal of pure, molten anger growing deep within my Soul. While I have been suffering from "Writer's Block" in recent months, due to a massive ear infection, tonight I am periodically scribbling notes in my green note-book because I have learned the only way to calm down when I feel like this, which is the cause and effect of my god-damned Empathy, is to write, write, and write some more....... (Some friends and family like to tell me that I have a wonderful gift when it comes to my empathic abilities but I do not agree since it has caused me more problems than anything or anyone- else in my life. I feel too damned much and while that can give me a wonderful insight on people, pets, and even things when I do what I truly love, writing these words you read, the empathy is also the reason I seek an escape from this reality, however fleeting that escape may be. It is the reason for my anger now at this senselessness in Colorado and I'm angered also by the general apathy of most Americans about it. Instead of figuring out WHY this has happened, we only want to know the what, who, and how of the situation, while the scum sucking politicians turn this horrible event into a debate over gun control. After the debate, it is of course time for the mid-evening showing of The Dark Knight Rises.) I am sort of ashamed to be an American at the moment. I've been watching, off and on, the Mainstream Mass Media "news" coverage of this terrible tragedy in Aurora, Colorado for the last twelve (12) hours and it simply amazes me that fellow citizens of this once great country are still lining up in massive queues, laughing and joking, to watch a movie that indirectly cost twelve (12) innocent --as "innocent" as one can be, I guess-- people their lives, along with injuries to fifty-nine (59) others, seventeen (17) of whom are listed in critical condition. I feel quite strongly, that as a sign of respect to those injured and dead --along with all of the families--, "THEY" should have stopped showing "The Dark Knight Rises" while the bodies are still warm in the freezers of Auroras morgue but I guess that even twenty-four hours is too much money lost. May the Gods forbid that "THEY" don't have the money to repay the movie investors their investments back on the opening day of ANY movie; much less a long awaited Summer Blockbuster I don't mean that the movie should never be watched and I know that there will ALWAYS be an audience for Batman. I, too, was looking forward to this movie and I understand it

speaks of issues that are quite relevant in this sad pocket of history but I cannot imagine wanting to watch it tonight. I would think of nothing but the victims as larger than life images of Batman, a dark super-hero who desperately wants to protect the innocent, flickers across a huge IMAX screen in down-town Stockton. While for me, this movie will always be linked to this tragedy but to most Americans, this atrocious act will be almost forgotten by the time "The Dark Knight Rises" is on DVD and in one of the red boxes that sit outside of so many stores in my bankrupt city. If you are out watching the new Batman this warm, summer evening, I truly hope you enjoy it Res Ipsa Loquitur Andrew N. Farrens West Stockton, California July 20, 2012