Twenty minutes after I posted that last entry, I recieved an e-mail from a friend about what happened at Dawson today. Twenty minutes after that, my brother called me from Ottawa, voice shaking as he asked where I was, if I was safe.
I was fine, am fine. Plenty of people aren't. I've spent the remainder of the day not doing homework, as planned, but rather looking for updates on the Dawson situation. Who were they? What, if any, were their reasons, targets? There isn't much definite information, even as I wirte this, at a quarter-to-eight.
I did, however, find many comparisons to the Polytechnique Massacare of 1989. I made the mistake of looking up Marc Lepine through Google. Amazing how many of the articles/op-ed pieces listed on the first page of that Google search are "I hate feminists because they are using the Polytechnique Massacare to spread man-hatred" in nature. Sickening, in fact. Depressing. Moving along, because I want the rage to abate, not nauseate.
Another point that sort of bugs me is that many of the main news sources reporting the Dawson story feel the need to mention one of the suspects was purportedly sporting a mohawk. Please, please do not let mohawks become the next trenchcoat. In fact, let's stop caring what murderers wear, since it's pretty obvious that murderers come in all styles and fashions.
Oh, wait, I see a new profile/cliche emerging: Serial killers look like the average person next door and are soft-spoken, while spree killers wear black, listen to alterna-rock and play video games. Nausea, once again.
Meanwhile, gun owners are preparing their rants about projected loss of rights. Someone, somewhere, is trying to determine what ethnic origins the shooter(s) hail from, what music they enjoyed, what social class they were born to. Others are pondering whether we need to enforce police checkpoints at school entrances. Plenty of people are probably scared shitless to attend school tomorrow (and likely, for a long time to come). Perhaps there are even one or two hate-filled people out there who feel today's atrocity was justified somehow. I sense a mob, sharpening stakes and lighting torches, as I type.
What in the name of Righteous Fuck is going on? Why on earth are we not focusing on what makes people hate so violently, getting to the bottom of this? Why does everything have to come with a pointed finger and resentment? Pain needs to be dealt with, pain needs to be validated, but for fuck's fucking sake, let's stop letting hate perpetuate itself.
(On an aside: Yesterday in my PoliSci class, the prof asked (as part of a greater example) why we thought fewer women than men enrolled in Engineering programs at university. I bit my tongue instead of commenting that perhaps it has something to do with not wanting to get shot. But then again, female enrollment in Engineering went up immediately after the Polytechnique Massacre. Perhaps what doesn't kill us, literally, makes us stronger.)
I was fine, am fine. Plenty of people aren't. I've spent the remainder of the day not doing homework, as planned, but rather looking for updates on the Dawson situation. Who were they? What, if any, were their reasons, targets? There isn't much definite information, even as I wirte this, at a quarter-to-eight.
I did, however, find many comparisons to the Polytechnique Massacare of 1989. I made the mistake of looking up Marc Lepine through Google. Amazing how many of the articles/op-ed pieces listed on the first page of that Google search are "I hate feminists because they are using the Polytechnique Massacare to spread man-hatred" in nature. Sickening, in fact. Depressing. Moving along, because I want the rage to abate, not nauseate.
Another point that sort of bugs me is that many of the main news sources reporting the Dawson story feel the need to mention one of the suspects was purportedly sporting a mohawk. Please, please do not let mohawks become the next trenchcoat. In fact, let's stop caring what murderers wear, since it's pretty obvious that murderers come in all styles and fashions.
Oh, wait, I see a new profile/cliche emerging: Serial killers look like the average person next door and are soft-spoken, while spree killers wear black, listen to alterna-rock and play video games. Nausea, once again.
Meanwhile, gun owners are preparing their rants about projected loss of rights. Someone, somewhere, is trying to determine what ethnic origins the shooter(s) hail from, what music they enjoyed, what social class they were born to. Others are pondering whether we need to enforce police checkpoints at school entrances. Plenty of people are probably scared shitless to attend school tomorrow (and likely, for a long time to come). Perhaps there are even one or two hate-filled people out there who feel today's atrocity was justified somehow. I sense a mob, sharpening stakes and lighting torches, as I type.
What in the name of Righteous Fuck is going on? Why on earth are we not focusing on what makes people hate so violently, getting to the bottom of this? Why does everything have to come with a pointed finger and resentment? Pain needs to be dealt with, pain needs to be validated, but for fuck's fucking sake, let's stop letting hate perpetuate itself.
(On an aside: Yesterday in my PoliSci class, the prof asked (as part of a greater example) why we thought fewer women than men enrolled in Engineering programs at university. I bit my tongue instead of commenting that perhaps it has something to do with not wanting to get shot. But then again, female enrollment in Engineering went up immediately after the Polytechnique Massacre. Perhaps what doesn't kill us, literally, makes us stronger.)
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
I dunno, maybe this kind of thing has always gone on and we just hear about it now. Modern guns and explosives certainly make it easier to kill a lot of people in a hurry...
p.s. You should send that photo to Stuff On My Cat!!
hehehehe
Thx for the link!