Prodiorthosis (pro-di-or-tho’-sis): A statement intended to prepare one’s audience for something shocking or offensive. An extreme example of protherapeia.
Prepare yourselves for the worst. Be steady. Be solid. I have news for you that seems like it happened in hell, not at the mall. 56 people were randomly gunned down. 12 survived their wounds, the rest are dead—women, children and men. Whole families. People on their way to the movies. A mother shopping for a birthday gift for her daughter—the list goes on and weaves a tapestry of grief, anger and fear. Two of the nine shooters were killed, one was captured, the rest are still at large.
As fas as we can tell from interrogating the captured shooter, these fiends were paid $500,000 each for what they did. According to the prisoner, there was no message intended by the shootings. All we know is that there was substantial wealth backing the shooters. The one commonality between the shooters, aside from their lust for money and complete depravity, seems, from what we can gather from our prisoner, unwavering belief in conspiracy theories. But, what does that have to do with taking or destroying the lives of 56 people?
The single most obvious motive was money. To take an innocent human life for a paycheck is an act of soulless, self-absorbed, narcism by a sociopath—alienated from their own humanity.
We will be publicly mourning our community’s loss on Saturday, showing our grief and determination to keep our public places open: to congregate, to shop, and to play.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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