Sunday 6 December 2009

Most foul.

If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow, and which will not,
Speak.

Banquo, Act 1, Scene 3, Macbeth

Much has been
written about the lone shooter who plotted and carried out the massacre at the Polytechnique on December 6th, 1989. I read many of the the news items though not for the purpose of locating the exact origins of his documented hatred nor the particular events and conditions that facilitated the engineering and execution of his murderous intentions.

I was angry and terrified for my bright, wonderful young adolescent daughter who might encounter such opportunistic violence, a backlash against the perceived 'invasion' of traditional male professions.

Much was made about the shooter's parentage: the beating and battering he experienced at his father's hands, the alleged neglect by his mother.

Social conservatives, rightwing anti-feminists and gloating islamophobes - often rolled up in the same individuals - have their own drums to beat when they either screech malevolently about
attention paid to December 6th or stay religiously silent on the subject (See Canadian Cynic: 14 dead women? Whatever.)

I don't feel the need to attend a commemorative event today. I know that, in the decades since that date, there have been no systemic efforts made to address the seeds of violence that are sown and no programs established to redress the conditions that allow them to flourish.

Women's shelters, mental health services and community organizations that assist parents and families in crisis are still under-funded; there are more demands and less resources.

A substantive change will require more than political good will; it will require a cultural, ethical, spiritual and yes, an emotional commitment to ending violence against women and children.

5 comments:

fern hill said...

I'm glad you blogged on this, deBeauxOs.

Me, I was too upset reading the haters.

The annual hate-fest is getting worse, if possible.

Try googling 'Gamil Gharbi', the killer's birth and Moooslim-sounding name. It's ritual now to link the massacre to feminism AND Islam.

The haters get to hate women, feminism and Islam.

Depressing.

deBeauxOs said...

The haters keep the violence going because they are a major part of the problem.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post.

For an antidote to the haters that nonetheless doesn't ignor them, check AZ's latest post

Broadsides

deBeauxOs said...

Thanks for that link. I was thinking of doing a round-up of some of today's blogposts about December 6th, such as this post by our friend brebis noire writing at the black ewe.

Anonymous said...

I was at a little vigil last night, at the constituency office of Shelly Glover, with my teenaged kids. It suddenly occurred to me that it might be worth expanding the significance of the event into it's setting. This was a school shooting, too. We need to protect our WOMEN and CHILDREN. The long-gun aspect might hold its ground better if we remind the public that school shootings are still a regular occurance as well.
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