God bless you, Aurora.

God bless the families and those close to the people injured or killed in yesterday's Aurora, CO shooting. I wish this kind of thing didn't ever happen. I wish the media would minimize the chatter about this and other similar tragedies. I wish there weren't babies in the theater who were close to my son's age who got hurt or killed (I'm not sure, I had to stop watching the news).

Here's where I think we need to start looking at things differently. When things like this happen, instead of analyzing why the person did what they did and if they ever "tortured animals" or "had a fascination with fire" at a young age (these were some of the questions asked by one anchor on a news program I watched this morning), we need to say, "How can we stop this in the future?" And you can answer that question with things like, "Gun control!" or "More security!" What do I think? Be NICE TO PEOPLE. BE NICE. BE NICE. BE NICE. Quit judging people because they're a "dork" or "nerd" or too short or too tall. Quit it. Quit assuming that people are less than you because they have less things. Quit picking someone apart because chance got to them before it got to you. How many of you had sex in high school and yet when the first person got pregnant at 15 or 16, you bailed out on them or called them a whore? Quit pretending that because you were the lucky one that you are the smarter one.

I want to make it clear that I am NOT defending this creep who did this. Anyone who does this kind of things is 100% PURE EVIL in my mind. Most people have the ability to reason and I'm afraid this particular person, while very book-smart, did not have that ability. But when they're finally able to investigate his situation futher, I will hedge a bet that he was one or all of the following: 1. Picked on mercilessly in high school 2. On one or more perscription meds for depression/anxiety/etc. 3. Hated working with the public (he worked at McDonald's) because of the way people treat each other.

Now again. I want to say it over and over, this kid is sick and what he did was so appalling that it's really hard for me to even think about it. I can't watch the national news because that's all they're covering and all I do is want to cry and sit in shock. But what I am trying so hard to say right here is what if people had been nicer to this kid in high school and/or college and/or McDonald's? What if someone had said, "Hey, man, how's it going?" and listened to him the day he decided to order all those rounds of ammunition? Maybe he would have thought twice... And I mean, maybe it would have done nothing and maybe he is satan's incarnate, I don't know. But the fact is, the common trend in all of these similar situations is, "People were mean to him."

So again. God bless the people who were affected by this. They are in my constant prayers. And God bless the people who are afraid to do mundane tasks now because of this. But maybe, if we can take ANYTHING away from this other than unfiltered fear, maybe we should just be a degree or two nicer to each other from now on. I think we can do that, huh?