Bat Symbols and the Pride With Which We Still Wear Them...

On the weekends, I work at the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Kenosha Wisconsin.
This is a place more-or-less completely over-run by nerdy and geeky people on an every day basis. (and yes, I mean every day. Even during the week, when there is no faire, those who live temporarily and permanently onsite are all card carrying members of the Geekdom world. They work at a Ren Faire, for heaven's sake.)
When the Dark Knight Rises came out at midnight, and the shooting occurred in Aurora, I was upset for the families and people affected by this tragedy, but also for the film itself and the outcome of that night. I thought, and was correct, that this would be an end for a lot of the costuming that people do in celebration of a new movie and a midnight premiere, for security reasons; this would also shine a very negative light on many of those who attend Midnight premieres and partake in the costuming aspect because it would imply that they may think they are or wish to be characters in the film. James Eagan Holmes dressed in black ballistics and died his hair before his crime, and when he was apprehended, he claimed he was the Joker.
We're not all like James Holmes.
But these were reasons that we could mourn for, on the side of the tragedy of the victims.
This meant that our fandom was being frowned upon for the evil of just one of our number.
I thought it would be hard for some to represent themselves as a fan of the Batman, now. But I was very wrong.
This past weekend, among the crowds of people, I spotted probably close to a hundred Batman logo tee-shirts and backpacks and even some drinking vessels (that means cups), among the throngs of garb , belly dancing and chain-mail clad patrons, over the course of just the two days.
In every color, and throughout every age group, I saw many people sporting the Bat Symbol.
I recall turning to a cast mate and commenting about how happy I was to see that many folk in the symbol and Jaqui (my castmate) said:
"that's the community doing their part to mourn and still show their support for our Dark Knight."

If I wasn't supposed to remain in costume, I would most certainly have gone back to my car and changed into the Dark Knight Rises shirt I had inside that I got at the Mind Frame midnight premiere.

Much love, best wishes,
Wear the heck outta your Bat Symbol!
-Bridge