Blame

It was 1994 and we were living in a small town west of Houston. We had no plans on a Sunday afternoon, so we decided to catch a movie in a new theater West of Houston. Positioned right on the freeway, it was less than an hours drive away. I checked the movie ads and a half page splash caught my attention. “ Pulp Fiction”. There was a photo of John Travolta and numerous quotes from reviewers surrounded his photo with words like “ Exhilarating!”, “Great Story!” ,”Memorable!” . We didn’t know anything more about the film, so we decided to go. We had seen the notice of the “R” rating. As we sat down in the theater, We were surprised to see so many families with small children. The movie started with Travolta and another bum , walking down the street discussing their laundry. They proceeded to a low rent apartment and the movie turned violent. They were there to mentally torture and kill some other bums. We looked at each other and agreed to leave. We found the manager and got a full refund. The manager didn’t object and commented that the violence was worse during the rest of the movie . A while back, in Florida, a troubled, young man murdered seventeen people in a school. Protest broke out all over saying its the Presidents fault and something must be done about gun violence. I could not help but remember that day over twenty years ago when the theater was full of families with small children watching a horribly violent movie. ....and the protesters are blaming the gun.