I Can See Clearly… Honestly….

It’s kinda funny how the world makes some more sense when you’re sorta drunk, and not entirely shy when a doob comes your way. I have been listening to some tunes this afternoon, as well as having a wobbly pop or two. The bong was a factor too. What can I say? It’s saturday in Canada.

I really got off this afternoon by setting an MP3 player on my neighbour’s head and letting him listen to some new toons. My neighbour Bill, who shall remain namelesss, perked up when he heard Paul Simon’s latest opus “Suprise” on the headphones. He smiled and perked up at his barstool. He said “this stuff takes me back to my youth.” It was all I could do to tell him that Paul Simon is still releasing excellent records even now and that he was listening to a relatively new recording. Bill is not a young guy, and it was a treat to see him smiling as he listened to new music. I should be so lucky when I hit my seventies.

Old dogs new tricks you say. 

The fact of the matter is we have a unique situation happening. Music and culture of the post war generation is not only accepted, but celebrated by the following two generations. Look at Bill. He has passed 70 years of age, and here he is listening to a newly released record. The headphones are hanging around his chin, and we all enjoyed the joke that a backwards baseball cap would properly accent his bobbing head. He was listening to an icon of the sixties and thinking fondly of those times. Paul Simon’s music is still making an impact in the present day.

Old dog indeed. We could learn something from these so called “old dogs”.

After I parted company with Bill, I put on a record that had a theme. This is what we used to call the “concept album” back in the sixties and seventies. The only thing was, this album dates from more recent times. It’s a topical thing full of social commentary, and politics that didn’t stand a chance on the charts. Cultural statements shouldn’t mean anything. They should be innocuous and bland for fear of political incorrectness I suppose. We should sing about nice things like love or stamp collecting. Heaven forbid we get a backbone and develop an opinion. Of course I’m oozing sarcasm. I felt empowered for a few moments.  Listening to artists who have opinions and something to say seems to do that.

 We can all stand to reevaluate our perceptions, and I’m glad I got to see an old geezer like Bill playing the fool and wearing the headphones. We should all be so blessed. We should also pay a bit more attention when someone has an opinion .

The Mob Is Calling For Blood

As some of you may have heard, another innocent man has been struck down in the streets of Toronto. There has been indiscriminate gunfire in a crowded street for a second time this week. Two family men are dead leaving two widows, and several orphans.

What a bunch of stupid gangsters. Rotten fuggers.

I started trolling through the comments section of the Globe and Mail website and read all of the regular yokels and their knee-jerk solutions to the problem. Lots of people are suggesting that Canada enact a handgun ban. Another bunch are advocating a gun in every home. Plenty more seek a return of the death penalty. A lot of people think mandatory sentencing is a good idea. Some folks have jokingly said banning Toronto, immigration and the Liberal Party of Canada would fix the problem.

It sure seems like an intractable situation, because none of these things seem to be the solution. Handguns will keep trickling across the border whether they’re legal or not. Having a gun in  every home sounds like an even more nightmarish situation. There are far too many cases of innocent people executed for the death penalty to work. We all know about overzealous police and prosecutors putting the wrong man behind bars. Besides, our crime rate is lower than it was when we did have capital punishment. Depriving judges of the latitude they need to sentence according the the circumstances makes a mockery of the bench. I think we can all dispense with the idea of levelling a city of 4 million people. The Liberal Party isn’t to blame either. They’ve changed our country for the better for the most part, and it’s ludicrous to think that they’re the cause of our ills.

The worst part of the situation is that the culprits are an extremely small number of extremely stupid people. Their ethnicity, when it becomes known, will be held against everyone of that stripe, and the mob will begin looking suspiciously at everyone from that community … again. Exactly when people need to band together, we’re going to look over our shoulders and wonder if we’re going to be the next victim. Everyone else will be a suspect, and we’re all isolated as a result.

I’ve been there. About 10 years ago I was beat up and stabbed in front of my own home by a bunch of young drunks who were trying to break into my car. I was stupid enough to run after them, and I got pretty roughed up for my trouble. Not only was I incapacitated for several weeks while my injuries healed, I found that I couldn’t walk down my own street in broad daylight without feeling frightened. It wasn’t fun, and nobody should have to feel like I did. It’s difficult to believe in the innate goodness of people when you know there are thugs in the street with knives and guns. It takes a long time to overcome the feelings of suspicion and fear once they settle in. And those feelings are the last things we should have to contend with.

I hate these gangsters who think they can earn respect with a handgun. They do too much damage to the poor innocents who are killed and bereaved and to society at large.