This One Hits Home

I'm sitting here thinking this morning...how did it all come to this? How did we as a society let it get this far? I'm speaking of course of the recent (I'm assuming gang) shootings in the west end of Toronto (formerly known as York) There are a number of reasons why I'm taking this to heart. For one, I grew up on the tough streets of Keele and Eglinton, the area that has been hit with this wave of shootings. However, back when I was growing up it wasn't so bad. As I entered my teen years that is when the neighbourhood started to fall apart. Bad news was entering the area. Hell, I even remember having a baseball bat swung at me which missed my head by probably about an inch. I wouldn't be here today to tell you that story if that inch had been any closer. It was getting so bad that my parents figured it best that we move out of that area before it got even worse. Unfortunately, my friend is still out there and I worry for his safety every day.

I spoke with him briefly after a shooting in an area just down the street from where we grew up. He told me he usually runs out that way but decided on taking a day off that night, only to find out a guy was shot in a car where my friend would have been running at that very moment.

The second reason I'm taking this so hard is that these guys aren't going out at night and shooting each other up, they're doing it during the day. At times when children play, people are waiting at bus stops, or simply just walking home from work. Enough is enough, and we as a society shouldn't have to stand idly by and watch this happen. Do we need another Vivi Leimonis or Jane Creba incident to stop this? Maybe when the son or daughter of a politician are shot then we'll see some action. The unfortunate thing is, until we elect a leader in this city who will stand up and take some sort of action, anything frankly (not simply blame guns but blame the people) this will continue to escalate. Hate him for his policies or whatever, but do you remember Rudy Giuliani and his cleanup of New York City? Exactly! Frankly, I don't even think our mayor's name is worthy of mention in this blog. You do the rest Toronto.

Unknown Legend

Superficial World...It's Your Move!

It's been a while since I've posted a blog. To be honest with you I've been very busy lately. Sometimes life gets the better of you and you really don't know where the time goes. I felt it was time for me to post a new blog. Sure, I have a lot of things I'd love to talk about. A lot of things that are bothering me but I figure I'll have enough time to do that in the next little while. Anyways, the reason for my post today is because of something I've witness in the past few hours. I get a lot of grief from people in the "real world" according to them for being what they would call pessimistic but what I would call being a realist. You see, everyday we go about our business doing what we do but in all we are always judged no matter what we do. We are judged by the way we comb our hair, by the kind of shoes we wear and by even whether we shave or we don't. Well, today I've been following the news and heard about an older woman in England who had the chance to appear on Britain's Got Talent. Now, I'm sure she's faced the cruel hard superficial world her whole life. She looks beaten up by society and hurt many a number of times. I don't think it was by chance that she picked "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables. The words are words she can relate to I'm sure all her life. She even gave up the chance to pursue a singing career to take care of her dying mother. However, she got her chance the other day to show the shallow superficial world who she was. Yes they snickered, yeah they chuckled, hell they laughed and didn't give her a chance in hell...but Susan Boyle showed them. Copy and paste the following link to be amazed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY