AND ANOTHER THING.

[kebechet]

As I told my friend Meghan, it would do my heart some good if all the cowboys out there would shut the fuck up. The self-congratulatory, faux-messiah, would-be hero bullshit is truly insulting to real human beings who were really there and who are really fucking suffering. Your Wyatt Earp nonsense diminishes legitimate grief and pain.

AND ONE MORE FUCKING THING, and I promise I'll shut the hell up.

As Kate put it: 'It doesn't matter why the kids were at the movies in CO. Stop. Blaming. Victims.'

So fucking what if some parents took their kids to a midnight movie? Somehow it makes it /their/ fault that a lunatic gunman went berserk and shot at them? I reckon a movie theatre ranks pretty high up there in the list of Reasonably Safe Places to Take Your Children No Matter What Time It Is. Stop blaming victims.

Comments

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

I agree that the discussion of certain parenting choices (bringing a baby to a movie, keeping kids out that late, bringing kids to see a violent movie) are all worthy topics of discussion, and that in and of itself isn't the problem. However, I question, personally, the appropriateness of discussing it while many people are suffering and while the actual tragedy is so fresh in people's minds.

What I keep seeing are people saying that it's the parents' fault and the childrens' fault that they were shot because of this particular choice. They went to a midnight movie in a "bad" neighborhood, so it's their fault that they were injured or killed. They should have known better. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, made bad choices, and deserved what they got. That's victim blaming, and as far as I'm concerned, it's wrong.

[ashbet]

Thank you for this <3

I lived in Montgomery County, in two of the targeted neighborhoods, when the DC Snipers had their reign of terror. Someone was shot at MY post office, and we all had to decide whether it was safe to leave the house *at all* -- I was driving my daughter to school and running her inside, shielding her with my body. And I know that, if something had happened to us, I would have been questioned as a mother for not quitting my job, for not keeping her home from school.

There is no place that is truly "safe", only calculated risk. But no one can live in constant fear and raise their children that way.

Blaming parents for a madman showing up to a movie theater -- it's like blaming someone for getting struck by lightning.

-- A <3