It must have felt like Baghdad central in downtown Montreal today.
A man walked into Dawson College with three guns, one a semi-automatic, and simply opened fire. Two people, one of them the gunman, thankfully, are dead and reports vary on how many were injured or treated at hospital.
Offhand, I don't know anyone involved (I don't think). Although, I do have an acquaintance who works there; I have a dear friend who passed away earlier this year who was a much beloved counselor there for a long-time and I've attended classes in those hallowed halls. Heck, I wrote my Jeopardy! application in one of those classrooms!
Dawson is a beautiful old campus on the corner between Westmount and Downtown Montreal and is a beautiful Cegep not a University, as the US press is calling it. This is essentially the equivalent of Grade 12 and 13 here in Quebec. So these kids are all 17 and 18 years old. Watching the newsclips of Montreal's babies running in fear from the building hit so close to home.
Here we are the day after the anniversary of 9/11 thinking about all the people who died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that day, some of whom I knew personally. I was wondering about the insensibility of the disaster that occurred that infamous day and about all of the things that have happened since then, when this occurs. What a mindf*ck! Pardon the expression.
My nephew (Father of my Great-Niece) is a Captain in the Air Force and because of his position, has a slim chance of going to Afghanistan and yesterday, because of his job, he was in my thoughts, repeatedly. But today, after hearing the news, I thought of his sister, she's a member of the RCMP, off on maternity leave (new Mother of my Great-Nephew) and she could have easily been one of those cops who had to deal with that gunman today.
Apparently, two cops on a routine call just happened to be nearby when the gunman started shooting. They acted very quickly and in a very short period of time, had him cornered and "neutralized" so he could do no more harm.
It's funny, for the last few years, when I'd see stories about Afghanistan on the news, I'd fear that my Nephew would get called up and sent overseas to kill potentially innocent Afghanis in the guise of protecting us from Osama Bin Laden and the Axis of Evil. But everyday my Niece and her co-workers are out there on the front line dealing with all manner of psychos right here at home. And those psychos could far more easily kill you or I than every single one of Bin Laden's creepy friends.
All I can think today is thank God for people like my Niece. Those are the front-line members we need to have protecting us. Policemen.
And before 9/11 that's what our military were; policemen... Peacekeepers.
Today I saw the new recruitment commercials for the Canadian Military and it looked like an advertisement for one of those video games that I don't let my son play.
It's like they're trying to recruit people who will enjoy killing. People who will do what we have never wanted our military to do.
It breaks my heart and makes me wonder... Do we need more killers or more policemen?
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