A couple of weeks back a student at an open forum asked me when horror would be held accountable for all the mental damage it's inflicted that spills into the real world.
It is exactly our inability to face facts about our dark nature that horror tries to depict. And it is such a rarity that anyone is motivated by a work of fiction to inflict damage on one's fellows that it's statistically easier to get struck by lightning twice.
Mimesis is not a daily occurrence. It's always been my belief that any kind of fictional terror I can conceivably imagine pales in comparison to real world evil and the things that human frailty motivates us to do. And the real world never fails to deliver.
As an editor and journo, I often dream of making an impact through journalism (one of the reasons why I got into this profession in the first place, as others did I suspect) but it's always a surprise when it actually works. And in ways you never intended.
I tell you now: no eternal reward will forgive those of us in big media for committing grave mistakes.
As me and my team spent yesterday toiling at the studio, we were riveted by the bus drama unfolding at Quirino Grandstand.
Photo from PDI ONLINE
Gunman, 7 hostages die in 11-hour bus drama
MANILA, Philippines—Rolando Mendoza knew he was not going to come out alive of the bus he had seized with 25 people aboard, mostly Hong Kong Chinese, when SWAT teams began moving toward the van parked in front of Quirino Grandstand as night fell Monday.
“They are all around,” the former police senior inspector demanding reinstatement after he was dismissed on extortion charges two years ago said in Filipino in what was his last radio interview after an 11-hour standoff turned into a bloodbath at Rizal Park under a heavy downpour.
“I know they will kill me, I’m telling them to leave because anytime I will do the same here,” said Mendoza, who was armed with an M-16 rifle.
Gunfire rang out moments later before local and international television cameras.
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