I don’t think you will be an old person like that because, quite simply, you understand that one person is connected to the rest of the world. Therefor, you cannot care more for yourself and your money. Because you understand them to be part of the global.

While I get quite upset sometimes thinking “What kind of world have I brought my child into?”…gah!
I also find myself hopeful. You and Shannon have Ari, I have Ella. You and I both know many people with good values, social understanding, ethical lifestyles who are raising their children to think, question, empathize and act. I am hopeful that my daughter will be strong in the face of the world’s atrocities and take action because I have taught her to be a globally connected humanitarian.

I asked Shannon today if he thought any police would quit the force because of this and he thinks not, but I do, I still have hope for humanity.

Laura, I’ve watched endless amount of footage of the protests and there has been a lot of time where I’ve felt angry and helpless and on the verge of tears. It’s awful thinking that this is reality, this is the current state of affairs.

And the division it’s causing amongst citizens is also bad: I wound up arguing with an old man today at the gym who claimed that ‘they all should have been shot’ and I agreed with him, you mean the cops, right? And he laughed at me. I was only half joking. He claimed to know that all the people who’d caused damage were not tax payers. You know them? I asked. Do you know even ONE SINGLE PERSON WHO PROTESTED IN A PEACEFUL MANNER?

No. He did not. How could he? Why would he?

I wonder if I will ever be old and out of touch with the youth of the day. I wonder if I will ever care more about myself and my finances than the rest of the world or the greater good.

Maybe.

As for Allahkat’s concerns above: In every group or organization there are people who are trying their best to stay true to what they believe in and stand up for their values. My husband paints all protesters with one brush while my brother paints all cops with the opposite brush. I can only hope that when a person holding such a brush and a person like your father find themselves in a conversation with one another that they can articulate their positions clearly and listen to what the other person has to say. I believe that one person can make a difference. Hopefully your father can have a decent conversation about his own reasons for being a cop with even one person and help to open that person’s mind…and then perhaps in kind that person could share their opinions on protests and sense of justice and your father could carry that with him also.

Who knows? Anything has to be better than this insane system of thinking that all protests or gatherings are potentially violent/harmful and therefor it’s better to strike first. Surely this only serves to solidify every gathering of people as violent and riotous? Instead of the uncontrolled riots being the rarity, these actions are ensuring that every protest will be brutal, scary, and oppressive.

Gah, I could probably go on about this for a while. Couldn’t we all? I am left feeling like I have SO much to say about the outrage of what I have just seen, but also that I am speechless at this reality.

Canadian police have a long, unpleasant history of bad behavior. A few bad apples really do spoil the bunch, especially when they’re police, people who are paid by our tax dollars to SERVE and PROTECT.

This page has good ones:

http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/06/g20_protest_videos_capture_chaos_on_toronto_streets/

It seems amazing to me that in this day and age when every person on the street has a phone equipped with a camera that the police still feel they can get away with violence against people being peaceful. I do hope there’s a public inquiry into this (although it will probably just turn into yet another enormous expense and nothing will be resolved).