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"A hero is someone who understands
the responsibility that comes with his freedom."
~Bob Dylan |
A Voice Column
by Richard Corso
Grim news: more or less what we human
beings need to remind ourselves that we live in a realistic world of realistic
problems. Grim news that we may or may not toss behind our shoulders and keep
moving; grim news that we may or may not stay up nights staring at a ceiling
trying to understand why.
Whether it impacts us or not, it doesn’t change
the fact that it happens; that it happened. It doesn’t change the fact that
evil will always reincarnate and dwell in times, times of darkness for both our
minds and our bodies.
Over the summer grim news hit us hard very
close to home.
Bullets,
something that belongs in the action sequences of big blockbusters, not in the
theaters we go to break the barriers of that action, of that comedy, of that
sorrow, and the seats we sit in.
For
those who have forgotten, or possibly and luckily, dodged all news of the horror
that took place on July 21st, at the midnight showing of the latest
Batman film, a man by the name of James Holmes walked into an Aurora theater
and started to shoot. The actions of this - at the time nameless - anarchist
took the lives of 12 innocent people and injured 58.
We lost our friends; we lost our sons and
daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. That morning smile from the
unknown passerby on a sidewalk; we lost our cure for hatred in a few brief
seconds of haunting effects to the hands of a terrorist.
How do you sum this up into a story? How is
it that someone can say there are things we can and things we cannot control?
It’s called real life. How do we find who
to blame? “Oh, Mr. Holmes is mentally ill”; Of course he is, no one in any
correct state of mind would commit the crimes that man committed that day that
imagination and creativity was displayed on a screen.
Who do we turn to? How is it even possible
to look up at the clouds after times of darkness and ask “Why, why did the
lives of the innocent people have to be put in the hands of this anarchist?”
Who do we turn to? Maybe the answer is in the screen that the victims chose to
watch in the last glimpses of their life.
The
connection between the Batman film and the shootings is a great one. In the
film, much like it’s predecessors and fellow ‘super hero’ flicks, the story is
about the hero (Bruce Wayne) becoming a symbol of hope (Batman) to stop the
work of the one who stands in the way of true justice (Bane), through the
actions of death, greed, and the torture of innocent.
In the movies the hero arrives just in time
to save the day; he is the one on the horse who must battle the great dragon to
save the damsel in distress. Other days he takes the form of the troubled
scientist who transforms into the green beast who must be tamed into doing the
right thing. The billionaire, the photographer, the playboy, the outcast, they
hide behind these masks, until they put on their real faces, the symbol of
greatness.
However, there are both sides to this great
story. Inspiration doesn’t always come in words of hope, or symbol of peace and
justice. In terms of some, this inspiration is delivered through a mask of hatred
and greed. Inspiration many seem to follow in steps to.
In every battle there are two sides, there
is a battle of good and evil. There is the story of the Cherokee who tells his
grandson the tale of the two wolves, (two sides of the battle). The story says
that an old Cherokee told his grandson of a battle between two wolves inside
each of us. One wolf, [the villain], the one who symbolizes hatred, death and
the work of evil; and the other wolf, [the hero], the one who symbolizes
courage, peace, love and hope. The tale continues to say that the grandson
asked his grandfather which wolf wins. The old Cherokee tells his grandson the
wolf that wins is simply the wolf we feed, the idea we choose to fight for.
The ideas that Holmes fed and fought for
were the ideas of hatred, the ideas that people like Hitler and the KKK supported;
people who could have been great and brilliant minds, and threw it all away.
Now, we shouldn’t care about this James Holmes,
he’s just a name, but if the actions of this man, if the ideas alone can cause
others to act with this religion of madness then the only way to win this
battle is to be our own fictional superheroes.
In times like these we find ourselves
looking up, looking back, looking down, or anywhere we can for signs of a
friend, a leader, a living object to hold us. Someone to tell us to keep going;
we look in all places for that person to inspire the brave and fearless. We seem
to look at these movies and TV figures, these comic book and novel heroes in
the journey of their personal struggles. We are amazed by them, whether real or
imaginary, we are inspired by these men and women, these people who hold us up,
just so we can get over to the other side. How do they do it? What makes a man
jump into those flames? Why can’t I do that? Maybe we can.
When we were children we would go make a
cape out of bed sheets or a towel. We were a cowboy; we were the knights in
shining armor made of plastic and cardboard. That’s all it took to save the
day, the will to want to. When did that all change? As 7 year old boys we knew
that when Batman’s cape came off he was still an emblem of courage.
Did we wake up in hell someway along the
way? Things were always going to get worse before they got better, it doesn’t
take a bullet or bible to prove otherwise.
The people who oppose peace will come like
the early calmness to a storm, unexpected thunder and crash. We have, and will
be taken off guard when the guns are pointed, and the greed is pushed, and
hatred is spilling off the sides of the earth we will notice that it doesn’t
take waiting on superman to save us from ourselves, it takes the will to want
to be a hero that will prove successful.
So what is the point of a hero, or better
yet, what is the point of a fictional hero like the ones in stories? They
aren’t real-why do we celebrate them and hope for their presence when all hell
breaks loose? Easy, inspiration.
If there was a fight between Batman and
Spiderman, Batman would win but Spiderman 2 has one of the greatest quotes in
terms of what the hell is the use of a hero: “I believe there’s a hero in all
of us, someone who keeps us honest, gives us strength. Everybody loves a hero,
people cherish them, gather around to hear stories about the one who told them
to hold on a little longer”.
And that is the way it has to be, that is
the curse of love, peace, justice, hope; the villains of men and the villains
of society will continue to do their jobs, as they are inspired to. And now it
is time for a calling, as you wait for your friendly neighborhood Spiderman to
come and save us from this life of hatred, remember that we are coming to the
day where we have to step up and make the choice, the same choice that Holmes,
firefighters, teachers, police officers etc.
We have to put on our capes, our shining
armor. We have to become our own symbol, whoever that is, good guy or bad, we
are here to change the world. Now fly.
