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#MassShooting. In this #theater, 12 people and an unborn child were killed on 7/20/2012 when they attended the premiere of blockbuster #Batman movie "the dark knight rises". The #Century movie theater in #Aurora, part of #Denver Metro Area, has been refurbished since. Yet, no plaque or anything to commemorate the victims inside or outside the facility. It could be any theater, except that they don't screen #Joker, the Batman spin-off. It took families 6 years to get a memorial, and it is a mile away. Heather played a key role in the creation of the memorial. She gave me a bracelet to remember the victims and look positively to the future. It is a black bracelet with the Batman logo and the quote : We will rise. #wewillrise #NEVERFORGET #americanpilgrimages #PelerinagesAmericains #travel #usa

A post shared by Alex Gra (@alexgrardel) on Oct 12, 2019 at 8:37am PDT

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At #Aurora 7/20 #memorial, both injured and deceased victims of the #MassShooting are remembered. The white cranes are the injured victims – there's 58 of them – and the grey ones are the 13 who passed away (12 + 1 unborn child). #Cranes were chosen after families received 1,000 paper cranes from a community in Missouri with messages of support on each of them (picture 2). According to a Japanese tradition, it takes 1,000 #PaperCranes to make a wish come true. Since then, the memorial has also showed its support to victims of other shootings by sending their own paper cranes. The shooting brought the Aurora community together and opened it to the world. #americanpilgrimages #PelerinagesAmericains #travel #usa

A post shared by Alex Gra (@alexgrardel) on Oct 13, 2019 at 12:42pm PDT

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#Auroramemorial. Zach has worked on the city garden that hosts the 7/20 #memorial for years. Since the city of Aurora offered the land to the association of #MassShooting victims, he's been dedicated to make the garden as "perfect" as it can. He selected together with each family which plant could represent best their late loved ones. A heartbreaking experience for him. Zach is proud and happy to bring it to life and, as such, to pay his own tribute. #americanpilgrimages #PelerinagesAmericains #travel #usa

A post shared by Alex Gra (@alexgrardel) on Oct 13, 2019 at 7:49pm PDT

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#RememberVeronica Heather is the chair of the 7/20 #Memorial, dedicated to the #Aurora #MassShooting victims. She actively took part in raising funds for the creation of the memorial garden. In the garden, each mourning family has a dedicated boulder. The one Heather sits on is dedicated to Veronica, the daughter of her cousin Ashley. Ashley was pregnant when she went to the theatre on 7/20. Ashley got wounded and lost her unborn child. She is now in a wheelchair. Ashley was with her daughter Veronica on that day. Veronica wanted to be a police officer but died in the theater. She was only six years old. Since then, the Aurora police force made Veronica a honorary police officer. #americanpilgrimages #PelerinagesAmericains #travel #usa

A post shared by Alex Gra (@alexgrardel) on Oct 15, 2019 at 6:11am PDT

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#Columbine #Teacher #neverforgotten. 20 years ago, in Columbine High School, Colorado, 12 students and a professor were killed in the first school #MassShooting in the US. This professor was William Dave Sanders. He is remembered at the Columbine #Memorial alongside his students. His family says on the memorial plaque that they want Dave to be remembered not for the way he died, but for the way he lived. Dave was dedicated to his students, encouraging them to be better people. 20 years after his deaths, students keep visiting Dave's family to tell them how Dave positively influenced their lives. He also was the coach of Columbine #softball team. The softball field is dedicated to #DaveSanders (picture 2) #americanpilgrimages #PelerinagesAmericains #travel #usa

A post shared by Alex Gra (@alexgrardel) on Oct 16, 2019 at 7:36am PDT

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My hosts TK and Cindy visiting #Columbine #Memorial. TK usually does not honor the dead, but he made an exception for Columbine. Because Columbine is a defining moment in the recent history of the US. This #MassShooting showed the enemy of the US might be anybody, even the guy you went to school with. It was "kids killing kids", what a student quote recalls on the Wall of Healing (picture 2). For Cindy, Columbine changed the way kids are raised in the US, keeping in mind the worst can happen at any time, in any American school. Since your life can be taken randomly, Cindy sees Columbine Memorial as an invitation to do ggod in your life. She is aligned with a parent's quote: "I hope people come to this place to think about how they themselves can be better people" (picture 3). TK, from now on, strongly recommends visiting Columbine Memorial. #americanpilgrimages #PelerinagesAmericains #travel #usa

A post shared by Alex Gra (@alexgrardel) on Oct 16, 2019 at 7:01pm PDT

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#Columbine #neverforgotten. Every student's story told in the #ColumbineMemorial is heartbreaking. From Kyle Albert Velazquez who, after struggling with development delays, was at last starting to spread his wings at Columbine high school. To Steven Curnon, who, since his first flight to England when he was 10, was pursuing his dream to be a naval aviator. Through Rachel Joy Scott. Like many deceased Columbine students, Rachel's faith is put forward by her family in the memorial. A faith she demonstrated in the way she lived, and in the way she died. The last question Rachel was asked was whether she believed in God. She replied "You know I do! " and was shot. She was Columbine #MassShooting first victim. After her death, her family uncovered some inspiring texts in her journal. Rachel was inviting people to "dare to spread compassion to create a chain reaction. People will never know how far a little kindness can go" #AmericanPilgrimages #PelerinagesAmericains #travel #usa

A post shared by Alex Gra (@alexgrardel) on Oct 17, 2019 at 4:35am PDT

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#NeverForgotten 🙏 Remembering the victims of the Columbine shooting. A memorial has been built to tell about each of the 13 lives who were taken away, as well as the victims and families who are Columbine. #americanpilgrimages #PelerinagesAmericains #Columbine #ColumbineMemorial #wearecolumbine #columbinehighschool #MassShooting #america #colorado #memorial

A post shared by Alex Gra (@alexgrardel) on Apr 20, 2020 at 8:08am PDT

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#Change. This #mural in #Denver (picture 1) echoes the questions in #ColumbineMemorial wall of healing: "how have things changed? What have we learned?" (pic 2). Weapons are still in free access in the US and schools #MassShooting have sprouted up all over the country, from #SandyHook to #Parkland through #Colorado. In a radius of 15 miles only around Columbine, school shootings happened in Deer Creek Middle School in 2010, Arapahoe school in 2013 and STEM High School in May 2019. And in April 2019, a woman who worshiped the killers of Columbine went on her "Pilgrimage" to Columbine to do her own mass shooting for the 20 year anniversary of the 1999 killing. It seems like lessons were only learned by heroic students like 18 year old #KendrickCastillo, who used his body to protect other students from the bullets and died in May 2019 at STEM high school. I had the opportunity to talk with Brandon at Aurora Memorial, who is in charge of emergency planning in Colorado. Unfortunately, no matter what he can do at his job, it's not possible to prevent anybody's killer instinct. So, when do we boycott killing each other? #richardpryor #americanpilgrimages #PelerinagesAmericains #travel #usa

A post shared by Alex Gra (@alexgrardel) on Oct 17, 2019 at 11:06am PDT