COLORADO SHOOTING: WHO IS TO BLAME?

                            Marion Pellicano Ambrose

Ever since the first word of the tragic shooting at the Colorado theater hit the air, conservatives and liberals have been pointing fingers and crying “their fault”.

ABC News was just itching for a right wing connection, so they found one of the many people named “James Holmes” in the Denver area who happens to have a Tea Party connection even though they didn’t know for sure if it was the murderer. Here’s the conversation:

Stephanolpoulos: I’m going to go to Brian Ross. You’ve been investigating the background of Jim Holmes here. You found something that might be significant.

Ross: There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.

Stephanolpoulos: Okay, we’ll keep looking at that. Brian Ross, thanks very much.

Of course, it was a middle aged different “James Holmes” which ABC must have known, but they couldn’t resist taking the shot.

Conservatives have jumped on the band wagon saying that the liberal media have allowed violent, dark movies like Batman to mentally damage young people like James Holmes, and that’s what caused him to go on his shooting spree.  While I have to  agree that movies are way too violent and filled with sex and deviant behavior these days, I don’t think that was the single ,deciding factor that made this man murder 12 people and injure many more.

 As I switched from channel to channel, I heard about the need for gun control and how NRA was to blame for the tragedy, how the school system has let society down and caused the situation, how parents have failed in raising their children. There were so many fingers pointing I couldn’t keep track of who was blaming who! (or is that whom?)

Anyway, I finally saw one person on TV who was making perfect sense. He wasn’t pointing a finger or placing blame, although more than almost anyone, he had that right. He was the boyfriend of Jessica Ghawi, an aspiring young sportscaster who was killed in the theater shooting. When the reporter attempted to have him take a stand on the gun control issue, he refused and said all he wanted was for everyone to concentrate on the victims, on Jessica. He’s right. This isn’t a time for politics.  As both President Obama and Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney stated, this is a time for prayer and reflection. They both had the good sense and sensitivity to put politics aside to mourn for the dead and comfort their families and the injured.

Perhaps in a few days, we can talk about gun control, violence in movies, and all the rest. But not today, today is for remembering.