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23
Jun
2019
It had to happen, I suppose. Around two million fans of the Toronto Raptors basketball team packed the city’s downtown streets for a victory celebration.
Then someone took a gun into the crowd. And started shooting.
Four people sustained wounds. Three people were arrested; two firearms seized.
As I write this column, three suspects have been identified; a fourth is being hunted. So far, no one has offered a motive for the shooting.
You’re expecting another rant about guns and gun control. Not this time – because I think there’s a bigger issue involved.
In case there’s any doubt, I do oppose guns. I did have a BB gun as a teenager. I haven’t owned a gun since; we didn’t let our children play with guns.
But the real problem is not guns. It’s our ever-growing desire to distance ourselves from the effects of our actions.
Categories: Sharp Edges
Tags: email, war, Toronto, weapons, Senate
11
Jul
2018
I got an email from my friend Doug Hodgkinson the other day. Which was odd. Because Doug died seven years ago.
I wondered where he was writing from. And if they have wi-fi connections there, wherever “there” is. They don’t have gmail addresses, anyway. Doug had a gmail address before his death, but this message came from Hestbript@ibh1mnhk6k.rereprsente.us, which reads like the proverbial roomful of monkeys whacking typewriter keys at random.
Just in case there’s any doubt, I don’t think the message came from either heaven or hell – unless it’s the kind of hell that exploiters of human weakness and gullibility create. I gave up believing in hell long ago; I gave up on heaven a little later.
The two go together, because they both assume a God who hands out rewards and punishments.
Categories: Soft Edges
Tags: life, Hell, heaven, death, email