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Aurora 2012

Ft.Hood 2009

Twin Towers, 2001

Beltway Snipers 2002

Colombine 1999

The Long Island Railroad Massacre 1993

Mc Donalds Massacre 1984

Nobody was expecting  the arrival of Mayhem

Not like Storms

Not like Holocausts

Not like mass starvation

Not like political coups

Folks  were just eating dinner

Folks were just commuting

Folks were working at their desks

Folks were just watching a movie

Planes slammed into towers creating infernos

Bullet penetrated windshields without warning

The Joker made a personal appearance killing without script

Batman wasn’t there to save the innocent

A shopper collapses on the sidewalk; a bullet in her chest

Men, women and babies, fall from their chairs

 with fries and burgers in hand

Subway riders slaughtered where they sit

Madmen came to murder them

These were not random acts of violence

These were planned assassinations

They were meant to grab our attention 

Oh no, not in some far away place 

where death is seemingly not our problem... but here

where we live, where we work and where we play

The horror of the hometown massacre is not only about the event but more so it is about all of us and our own sense of security in ordinary places. As the families of the dead and injured go about the business of burying and healing we must go on with the business of living. Any one of us might have been in Aurora or New York on the day Mayhem visited. We live minute to minute and we never think about it until tragedy strikes the innocent and decimates a community.

The truth is: Batman does not exist. The Joker does. 

*Image credit:Image credit:

http://www.123rf.com/photo_13034301_american-flag-on-a-blue-sky-during-a-windy-day.html