Most little girls grow up believing in princesses and fairy tales. Not me, no. I grew up believing in superheroes. The Men in Tights who fought for everything good in humanity. As unlivable as the world became, as awful and treacherous as we made it, they would see something worth fighting for, and they would. Fight for it, that is.
How accursed they must feel, to bear such a heavy burden, to protect all the little children in the world from growing up too soon, to preserve the good in humanity. But the truth is, that’s something we are all charged with. It’s the responsibility of every human being to make the best society they can. No one is exempt from this, not the hipsters, not the atheists, not you or me, not anyone.
I’ve grown up in Colorado. I was 4 when Columbine happened down the street. I had just gotten back from the mountains when the gunman attacked the school in Bailey. I worked the phones at a movie theatre on July 20, 2012. I’m no stranger to shootings. That’s not to say that they don’t rattle the foundation of my being every time one occurs, but rather that I have had a lot of opportunities to learn from them.
I went to a friend’s house to watch coverage of the elementary school massacre because whenever tragedy strikes, I need a hug. The recurring thought in my head all day was “Why would I ever want to raise a child in this world?”. Then she said something that woke me out of my KBO mentality: “We need to work harder to make a world we can raise our kids in.”
That’s the truth of it, honestly. Here I am, my adult life before me, the possibility of having a career and a family shimmering just over the horizon. This is the precipice. It’s a golden opportunity we have at this age. I think I’ll never have as much potential in my life as I do right now, and that goes for the entire generation. Most of us haven’t started a career or family yet. We still have so much control over where our lives can go, so much we can determine for ourselves and society by choosing. There’s the old standby, that some are born great while others have greatness thrust upon them. I believe there’s a third group: those that choose greatness.
Right now, we get to decide what kind of world we’re going to create down the line. It’s a little scary to think that the hipsters will soon be of the age to run companies and countries. What’s scarier is to think that soon we all will be of the age to run more than just our own lives. We get to make decisions, we get to have influence. But we’ll get back to that, because I want to talk about superheroes again.
I need to qualify my belief. I’ve always had a good grasp of fiction, I never believed they existed, but rather in what they stood for. They stood for good triumphant, for sacrifice in the face of tragedy, for simply BEING THE HERO. I think sometimes the world forgets what it’s like to have a hero, because everyone is looking to someone else. We ALL need to be heroes. True, I’m not acting as a mild-mannered blogger while waiting for my red phone to ring, I am simply just a girl with a computer. But sometimes I like to think that if I say the right thing at the right time in someone’s day, I can be their hero. I think everyone can be somebody’s hero. And truly, I believe that all evil in this world stems from people who had no hero.
I really believe my friend is right.This is America, for crying out loud. We are not a society of malice and hatred, of turmoil and destruction. We are a community. It’s our responsibility to each other to maintain peace. The influence that each individual has on a society (told you I’d get back to that) is all just a piece of the whole. It’s our responsibility to make the network a livable place, where we can see movies and go to school and work without fearing for our lives. Somewhere along the line, someone screwed up. Someone that somebody else looked up to, or counted on. Super job, heroes.Now this domino effect of killings has resulted, and the community, instead of strengthening, has begun to panic, to point blame at everything but itself.
On that note, in response to Morgan Freeman’s opinion regarding sensationalist media (see link below), I don’t think he’s entirely wrong. Especially not the end, when he calls to action every person. He did that in just over 270 words (or at least he’s been credited with that), I’m so sorry that mine is so much longer.
Abridged Version: Be a good person. Help other people to be good people. Be a community, not a group of individuals. Be a hero. Be super.
I’m a nerd.
Link to “MF” response: http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/14wyhp/morgan_freemans_response_to_the_shootings/
You made some really great points. I hope you're right that someday, our generations that have to live through all of this pain suffering, can grow up to fix those mistakes that were made by the generations before us. It's such a great thing to hear that anyone and everyone has the potential to be a hero.
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