by Emma at The T-Room.us
It’s been a week since the Sound of Freedom movie debuted in theatres across the country and it’s quickly become yet another issue to add to the great divide we’ve been experiencing in recent years. I watched the movie, figured I’d go early in the day expecting an empty theatre. I was very surprised to find the theatre already three quarters full upon my arrival. The vibe was relaxed but pensive as we sat waiting for the movie to begin.
The movie drew me in from the opening scene and quickly tore in to my emotions. Disgust and anger towards the perpetrators was followed by heart wrenching sadness when the children became victims. As the violations towards the children unfolded, anger and outrage rose above the sadness I felt for the victims.
I glanced around the theatre, I needed to see if others felt as moved as I was feeling. A man several seats down from me was sitting forward, elbows on his knees, hands gripped in front of him, the lady next to him patted his back. The silence was such, I could hear the sound of hands wiping tears from cheeks in the row behind me.
A that moment, I felt we were not merely moviegoers, we were witnesses to massive atrocities of our most vulnerable population – children, young children. I thought then, at the end of this movie, I am going to have to stand up and address the people in this room. I’m going to say “Right, we’ve all just seen what’s happening to children, we can’t walk away and just get on with our own lives. We have a responsibility to do something.”
That thought stayed with me for much of the movie, but as the end neared, my heart broke for the children. Their lives had been tainted by evil, their childhood stolen, their innocence ripped from them. Their lives could never go back to before. A great sadness moved through me as I thought of the years to come for each of these poor souls.
I left the theatre on that note. No address to the room. A missed opportunity, or an intrinsic feeling that many in the theatre that day would not walk out and do nothing…