The story that has dominated the news over the last several days has been the heinous and cowardly murders of moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado. My prayers go out to the victims: those killed, injured and their loved ones — it’s an unfortunate and unnecessary way to die.
Given the way the story has trended on news sites, the killer’s name and photo have been all over the place. More people are talking about him than the latest Hollywood scandal.That’s the problem with our news outlets: criminals tend to get famous quickly and the more heinous the crime, the more they are talked about. How’s that for incentive for a psychopath trying to get significance in this world?
Over the weekend after seeing the killer’s name and photos plastered all over the major news sites, I thought about how much of a shame it is that this guy has now become a household name. Apparently, a lot of others have felt this way because there’s effort underway to stop using the guy’s name. It’s gained some traction as even President Obama and his press secretary are refusing to use the killer’s name. I think this is a wonderful idea as it starves this scumbag of the attention he so desires and takes incentive out of other psychos who might be seeing the fame that he has gained.
The title of the post is taken from the Harry Potter series. If you’re not familiar with the stories, the main villain is a bad wizard named Voldemort. People are so scared of him that they refuse to say his name aloud, fearing that he and his followers will track them down. I hope that the murderer doesn’t see this campaign to not use his name as an elevation to super villain status — after all, he is a psycho and was trying to emulate a Batman villain. So I propose we give him a nickname.
The Drudge Report has referred to him as “The Joker” after Batman’s arch enemy. But I feel that’s too much of a compliment. Instead, I propose “the scumbag.” I’d call him something else but I don’t allow profanity on this site. With that being said, may The Scumbag rot in Hell.
James Feudo owns the Boston Web Design Agency JVF Solutions and loves blogging about personal development and communication in his spare time.