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
2 comments:
I remember my first year of Radio, around the time we met Pete. There was a big shoot out with kids who live down the street. Across the street is a school, and, the parking lot turned into a battle ground leaving 3 kids dead. I feel what is happening will get worse as time goes by. Polititians are trying, however,there seems to be no solution, in my eyes, other than putting a violence and education on gun into the curriculum at schools. Grade school that is...starting with Kindergarden. Let's face it, we are not living in the same world our parents grew up in...we aren't living in the same world we are living in.I disagree with this hand in you guns thing that went down.I don't think anyone who uses guns for shoot outs handed them in.The guns that were in daddy's gun closet are now gone, and, the kids will not get to them...and this is good.The thing is though, with the threat of 2012 looming,and,gov't expecting mass chaos,good people are going to need firearms to protect themselves and hunt.Now, the only people with guns are police, mafia and bikers.All the good working people will be screwed chewed and tatooed if something goes down in 2012.
Hmm. I dont know if I'd say the sky was falling or anything, but there is definately a rise in community violence in this city and I cant for the life of me figure out where its stemming from? I grew up in a rough neighbourhood myself. And there were shootings in my area, but not like today, where kids are walking around shooting eachother over dirty looks in the hallway.
Music & movies havent changed much.
I think its us wanting to emulate our US counterparts. Maybe we need to get back to our roots of peaceloving canadians?
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