Aurora, CO Shooting

This is the second time within a month that my Colorado has made national news.  First with all the destruction of the wildfires (which I want to take a minute to say I am so happy it has been contained and that the beauty of my lovely CO Springs was saved.  Though the losses sustained will not be forgotten, the city is ready to rebuild), and now this horrific act of evil.  Aurora, CO is my hometown.  It is where I was born and raised.  I woke up Saturday morning and when I looked at my phone I had numerous missed calls, voice mails, and texts asking me if I was ok....if I was alive.  My heart began to pound, and I could feel a lump in my throat as I realized that something awful must have happened back home (I was on vacation in different parts of the state all week).  I quickly googled Aurora, CO and instantly a photo of Century 16 popped up with a headline that read something along the lines of "mass shooting" or "massacre".  My heart broke instantly, and the more I read and the more news I watched my heart continued to break.  The simple fact that this happened, such an evil thing, against sooo many innocent people at a place as innocent as a movie theater, struck to the core of me.  Then to see it all in my own home, my community, the very place I grew up and live, a movie theater that I myself have gone to several times (though I can say it has been years since I last went to that particular theater).  It is beyond me how anyone could do such a thing, how such hateful and heinous things could ever possibly cross someones mind let alone act on it.  My next thought was of course if I knew anyone there.  I later came to find I did not know any of the victims.  I do know someone who was next door in theater 8 at the time of the shooting.  This in its self was enough to terrify me.  Life is so precious, so unpredictable, and you can never be sure that you won't be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  That some monster is looming about ready to unleash against their fellow human beings...innocent lives.  I pray for this community, for all those affected.  This tragedy is one that will forever be felt the hearts of those of us who call or have called Aurora, CO home.  I know we will rise from this and stand together.  We will not allow the evil of one man break the spirits of the masses.  And above all I still stand behind my city, my state, and can say that I am proud to call Colorado home and that we are a state of greatness.

So for now, let those mourn who need to mourn, may the monster who did this pay for his acts, and remember those who were lost.