As the news came in throughout Friday afternoon I never expected that by Sunday night we’d be attending the Memorial for the Aurora victims dressed in Nightwing gear. We only met Alex Sullivan a little over a month ago because of Denver Comic Con. I keep telling people that he was our biggest fan because that’s exactly how it felt. He wrote in to the show nearly every week and we talked about him often, wondering how we could get him more involved or when we could have him on the show. He was such an encouragement to us because we knew that DCC was our chance to promote our show and get regular listeners and audience participation and Sully was the first real sign of success, somebody we didn’t know who liked us just cause. We gave him a shirt.
After we found out for sure that Sully was one of those killed, Ryan wrote an article about how we knew Sully, so I’ll not retread that ground, but I do have some things to say and clear up.
The Memorial Sunday night was really nice. It’s a strange experience to grieve for a relationship with someone that you never really got to have. And it’s somehow comforting to see a crowd like that one gathered in honor of that person.
I’d like to thank Denver Comic Con for their involvement in organizing the Memorial, the officials of the City of Aurora, Governor Hickenlooper, all the people who volunteered to form a wall around the event to block the Westboro Baptist Church (who thankfully never showed), and the church leaders for their prayers and encouragement.
After the memorial we went to get food and while talking with the waiter he said what bugged him most about the whole thing was that when the shooter was taken into custody he gave up the fact that he’d booby trapped his apartment. We decided that it seems like the move of a man who didn’t really care about hurting people but was more interested in having the police find what he’d set up for them. Like he thought we’d all be impressed by it. Sure enough, a few days later I passed by the tv at work where they were detailing exactly what traps he’d set and postulating about what he hoped would happen when they were triggered.
It’s hard not to be angry after something like this happens and it’s easy to be angry at the wrong people. But this is Denver, and we’re seen shootings like this before. Months after Columbine the news was still trying to make sense of those boys actions. They spoke with every neighbor and family member, stirred discussion about every possible cause or who should be blamed as a way to search for understanding in the midst of chaos.
This shooter didn’t choose The Dark Knight Rises because he hates Batman, he chose it because he knew it would get him attention, because he knew that he’d add a bitter taste to a great movie forever. If that’s what he wanted than that’s exactly what I don’t want him to have. This is an evil that cannot be explained and should not be understood. The biggest cheer and applaud at the Memorial was when Hickenlooper said he refused to say the shooter’s name, “In my house he’s known as suspect A.”
I’m going to work my hardest to forget the shooter’s name—I only know it because I came across it looking for news about Sully when we believed he was missing. I’ll not hesitate to go back to the theater because I wont allow this person to have any legacy of terror.
If anyone is going to have a legacy coming out of this tragedy it’s Sully. It’s clear how many friends he had who loved him, and I think we feel lucky to have been able to count ourselves among them for a short time. He’s given us new motivation for the podcast and I guarantee that we’ll remember him often. We’ll be dedicating an episode to Sully this week as well as give out information about the small fundraiser we’re going to do to help out Sully’s family. We may not have much influence but we’re going to do everything we can to help.
I would also like to make it clear that everything we’re done for the past few days we’ve done cautiously. None of us want any promotion for the podcast because of this tragedy. We dressed up for the memorial as a way of honoring Sully not drawing attention to ourselves. While we were timid about having our pictures taken or doing interviews with the various news sites that have contacted us, we chose to do so because we thought it would be disrespectful towards Sully not to share our story and pretend we didn’t know him, but we were careful to avoid ever talking about the podcast because we didn’t want any of that to lead back here. It is all our wish that we never be perceived as trying to take advantage of this tragedy because we would quickly give up the followers we’ve accumulated over the past few days to have Sully back. I don’t want to begrudge new listeners, only ask that you not follow us because you think we’ve got some insight into why this all happened, but instead like us because Sully liked us, and he was a great guy with great taste.
Thank you all for your time, support, and encouragement through all this and please stay tuned to find out how you can join us in supporting the victims. We’ll let you know as soon as we can get it all figured out.
-James
