A Batman visit to Colorado? Let’s talk about real heroes instead

There’s a Facebook campaign afoot to persuade Christian Bale to visit the children of Aurora, Colo., in the hospital, wearing his Batman costume. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to ignore your fans.

The idea is supposed to be to cheer up the injured young victims of “The Dark Knight Rises” shootings. It’s nice that people are thinking of doing something for the kids, but a Batman visit sounds like about the least comforting way to go about it, something more likely to frighten and upset children whose most recent view of the character occurred under almost unimaginably traumatic circumstances.

The misguided campaign also theorizes that this would show the children that “heroes can be real too, not just bad guys.” But isn’t that just the point? There was a real villain last week, a gunman who shattered multiple lives. But there also were real heroes that night, and they weren’t Batman. There are stories of people who shielded others with their bodies. There were police who arrived at a scene where they knew there was at least one suspect with an automatic weapon. There are even the brilliant scientists who invented a robot that could disarm a booby-trapped apartment, saving more lives.

WHO THEY WERE: Aurora movie-theater victims

At many of the worst moments of people’s lives, there are other people, wearing costumes no more outlandish than a T-shirt and jeans, who are there to help. As horrible as the shootings were, and as troubled as the victims and their families will be for a long time to come, there is comfort in our humanity.

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