July 20th, 2012

Dear Jeremy,

 As I am writing this letter to you I know that it has been some time since my last one. It has been on my mind for sometime to drop another “Letter to Jeremy” but for one reason or another my various other writing projects, or the actual day-to-day of life have prevented me from doing so. Several milestones have passed us by, your sister is teething and learning to crawl, you are talking in full sentences at your own discretion, Mitt Romney is the Republican presidential hopeful in the 2012 election against Barack Obama, and blockbuster movie season is in full swing. I could talk to you about any of these things but there is something else I choose to discuss.

 At this very moment you are watching Batman: The Animated Series—the Batman cartoon of my youth—on our DVR as you swing around a stuffed Flash doll. This makes me swell in my nerd heart even as you have already this morning dropped your bottle in the toilet during potty training, broken a vase, and made a mess all over the floor of your egg. This is the way of things with 2 year old Jeremy Stone Melendez. The reason I bring up Batman, specifically, however is because I was awoken this morning to somewhat disheartening news by your mother. You see today, July 20^th of 2012, is the opening day of the much anticipated Dark Knight Rises movie—the end of Christopher Nolan’s cinematic Batman trilogy. That is not the chilling news. As it turns out last night, at a midnight showing of the film in Aurora, Colorado there was a shooting and many people are dead and injured, including children.

As the episode of Batman-TAS “I Almost Got Him” rolls on, various Batman villains are discussing “almost killed Batman” moments. You are playing with your trains and watching the cartoon. Perhaps its not the best thing to show a 2 year old but, hey, Elmo and Caillou can’t keep me sane. Regardless, I look at you watching this cartoon and I am unable to stop thinking about the 3 month old baby and the 6 year old kid that were killed in a shooting at a midnight showing of a movie by an insane assailant wearing a gas mask. The first thought in my head, as a parent, is about how terrible that is. My second is wondering why the hell two kids that age were at a midnight movie. But the third is more important—why shouldn’t you be able to bring your kids to the movies without worrying about the children being shot.

 Of course, the notion isn’t lost on me as I consider that some children probably lost a parent or both in last nights shooting. The irony of that being that the character of Batman also lost his parents after seeing a movie when they were both shot. The only difference being the psychological trauma dealt to all the victims of this shooting and their families will not be remedied with vigilante justice wrapped in a stylized cape and cowl. I wonder to myself “Is this what we’ve come to?” There are innumerable arguments pro and con gun regulations regarding the Second Amendment but certainly this is something of a heavy weight on the pro side. This same community has endured unexpected shootings of this sort in the past with the tragic shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. The assailant, now in custody, is claiming to have explosives in his apartment and the FBI is unsure as to how to enter the premises. Seeing as he, like a Batman villain might—even perhaps in homage of cinematic Bane—was wearing a gasmask at the time of the shooting, it is likely that he is well armed with ordinance and artillery of some sort.

 The Second Amendment is something of a slippery beast to deal with because it is a right built into our national DNA and keeps us safe from the Government’s thrall. Various attempts have been made to somehow curb this kind of massacre from occurring but as a cowboy nation, and one rightfully fearful of government servitude, we cannot take the right to bear arms off the table. It becomes an insane Catch-22 where removing the guns puts us at the mercy of possible fascism while keeping them accessible puts us at the mercy of possible maniac massacre.

Again, I don’t have the answers to this particular question, and I think that there is something actually more systemically wrong that guns and gun control. Guns were just as accessible in other generations and massacres of this sort were far less frequent (even when factoring in the advent and relative affordability of automatic weapons). Sure tales of the wild west illicit imaginings of the OK Corral, and shootouts with Billy the Kid and so forth and the early 20^th century conjures the same images of Tommy Guns and Gangsters but even these are examples of criminals vs. the law and not maniacs vs. the unsuspecting.

When I was talking about this massacre with your mother she was quick to note that New York gets a bad rap when it comes to gun violence but this almost never happens in New York. I remember a few isolated incidents from my youth in Jamaica or Sunrise Multiplex but even those only saw single injuries or fatalities (if memory serves), and certainly nothing to the extent of Friday morning’s slaying. Where do these kinds of shootings happen? Middle America. Where its’ supposed to be “safe”. Where these acts of violence don’t occur because they aren’t inner city areas with high crime rates and rampant drug problems. Yet in little more than a decade the same small, apparently safe community has had two of these shootings. Last year’s shooting of Senator Gifford in gun friendly Arizona wasn’t in an inner city either. So now the stereotype of a killer is the impoverished minority or the isolated white guy (disclosure: I’m assuming the shooter is white)? So, anyone can be a killer? Guns don’t kill people, people kill people…right? But don’t guns make it just a touch easier to kill 16 people or better from one spot?

I’ll admit Jeremy this letter is largely reactionary. The event I am responding to happened less than 12 hours ago and details are still developing, but the shooter isn’t denying his involvement either. He’s apparently ready to deal with the guilt—or lack there of. But I keep thinking of the dead, especially the young children and babies and feel like someone is going to be proposing legsliation to keep kids out of movie theaters after curfew before they seriously approach the problem of gun control that balances the need to keep fear in the government and the need to feel safe on the streets. Perhaps in the year 2035 when I’m 50 and you’re 25 guns will be a thing of the past and we’ll have made First Contact with the Vulcans. Of course, we’ll be using phasers…but at least you can set those to stun…and that’s a step in the right direction. Until then, remember I love you very much…and I’m still going to see Batman tonight, though I won’t be bringing you and Ayla with me.

 Love,

 Your Father

 

P.S. I cannot get over the sudden burst of language coming form you at every turn. You know your letters pretty well, and colors and numbers are emerging nicely.You truly enjoy playing with your sister, and are so good to her. While you decided to suddenly start emulating things I do while I’ve been spending the summer with you two I’ve made a point to teach you potty training, showering, and washing hands. Sometimes you just like to break shit and that’s ok too. After all you’re only 2 years old. It is the highlight of my life spending time with you kids in such great amounts, and that said I’m glad to have help from friends and family. Also you love to shout “I’m Batman!” and run around the house. I’ll have to remember to show all your girlfriends the video when you’re a teenager—they are bound to think its super cool.