Shut Up And Listen 77

Rant
This column is for the newborn daughter of my friend Wade. May she grow up in a better world than I.
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Sixty-nine. Quite a number, isn’t it? Very impressive. Put it together with fifteen and you get eighty-four, an even more impressive number. Especially when you look at those numbers as percentages.
	Sixty-nine percent of Canadians think that the US is at least partly responsible for the attack that happened last year on September 11. Fifteen percent think the US is ENTIRELY responsible.
	Think about that for a second.
	Eighty-four percent of Canadians think that the US is in someway responsible for them being attacked by terrorists. And we’re not talking about a country that hates the US or agrees with the attacks. We’re talking about its closest neighbour and ally. Sibling countries, almost. Canada has supported the US throughout everything that’s happened. We’ve taken in flights, sent medical assistance and rescue workers, sent troops to help in Afghanistan, worked out a tighter border check and generally, just been there all the way.
	But we think the US had some part in what happened to them. Some onus of the blame.
	I want every US reader to think about that.
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What’s more important to you: breathing or making money? Next time you talk about the Kyoto Protocol and how it could affect the economy adversely, think about that.
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It has been reported that a firm in Calgary is looking for cities in which to put a CFL expansion team. The CFL is the Canadian Football League, for those who don’t know. At the top of their list is London, where I live. If this firm has any sense it will strike London from the list.
	Firstly, CFL teams don’t make huge amounts of money. I hear that the fact that the Toronto Argos don’t make enough money to justify an NFL expansion team in Toronto in some people’s eyes (which is stupid as an NFL team would make lots of money, because no one takes the CFL seriously). Many of these teams are in large cities that have much more lucrative markets than London, so what chances do you think that a team in London would rake in the bucks?
	Secondly, London doesn’t know how to make money off of sports. It lost money on a guaranteed money make in the Canada Summer Games, has had every minor league baseball team move, and is just generally poorly run.
	Thirdly, no one would give a fuck. It’s the CFL.
	My friend, Matt and I went online to find the firm’s e-mail address so we could warn them, but the firm has no website. We believe that the company is akin to that in Dilbert and almost wants to lose money and go bankrupt. That’s the only explanation.
	By the way, Canadian football is better football than American football. The ball is bigger, the field is bigger and there are only three downs. Our game is tougher.
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This week, for about a day, there was some big thing about some Republican judge nominee being rejected by some committee because the voting went the way of the parties and there happened to be one more Democrat on the committee than Republicans. So Bush came out and bitched about it; Republicans came out and bitched about it. They all claimed that that was not a time for politics.
	These people are what we call sore losers and morons.
	I’m going to tell you something that should be obvious to even the most simple-minded person: the minute you affiliate yourself with any party officially, you give up all rights to bitch about someone playing politics on you. You have made a conscious decision to make politics a big part of your life and told everyone where exactly you stand. You’ve said I’m with them and not you.
	If this had been a Democrat nominee and a majority Republican committee rejected the nominee, then it would be the Democrats bitching and the Republicans saying it was a fair decision.
	“So what else is new?” you ask.
	Nothing, but the point is that I am so fucking sick of party politics. I am sick of the blind following and the worship of the party. How is it that you have so many “god-faring” people who worship the party they belong to? 
	What you need is a bunch of people who have their own views, their own opinions and think for themselves. Fuck the parties. Especially in a country like the US where there are two main parties that act the same most of the time, except the Democrats are wussier about it. That’s all Democrats are: pussy Republicans.
	I most identify with the NDP (New Democratic Party) here in Canada. I’ll most likely vote for them come election time. I won’t join them though (unless I get a hankering for some politicking--meaning, I actually run for something that requires a part-affiliation to be taken seriously). I won’t get caught up in that “Us versus Them” bullshit. I’ll vote my beliefs and that’s it. The rest is unnecessary posturing and games that cause more harm than good.
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Today, I was watching a press conference from the Toronto Film Festival. It was a press conference for Michael Moore’s new movie, Bowling For Columbine. It is a movie that starts with the issue of guns and the whole Columbine school shooting, but then expands into the US’ culture of violence. I have yet to see it, but I’ve read a bunch about it and really want to see it.
	In the movie, Moore makes comparisons between Canada and the US. Like how a higher percentage of Canadians own guns than the US, but our gun violence is significantly lower (per capita). Most of the guns owned here are rifles and shotguns owned by farmers and hunters, but still, a higher percentage of Canadians own guns than Americans.
	Or how about how a large percentage of Canadians don’t lock their doors. I know we only lock our door when no one’s home or at night when we’re sleeping. Hell, that’s how I always thought it was, but apparently in some places people lock the door to their house during the day when they’re home. That’s how bad it is.
	Moore also said some things that really stuck with me. He talked about the Canadian outlook on the way things should be in Canada and how Americans view on how things should be the US. In Canada, the attitude is that everyone helps everyone else out. If you’re sick, we all suffer. We’ll help you out if you’re having a tough time. 
	In the US, the attitude is every man, woman and child for themselves. If you’re sick, you get out of bed and go to work, you lazy slacker! Lost your job? Suck it up and get two! It’s me, me, me!
	Children don’t have guaranteed healthcare in the US. That is fucked up. That is a society that claims to be all about democracy and being united, but CHILDREN DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE ACCESS TO MEDICAL CARE! Money has more value than a child’s life! People would rather protest abortions than make sure that child living down the street in poverty has acceptable living conditions!
	The sad thing is that there are people in Canada who want to become just like the US. They want to sacrifice all the solidarity and social programs that make us great for money. Fuck them! And fuck you if you think like that!
	You think this is anti-US? If you think that I am attacking what you perceive to be the American Way Of Life, then fuck you! Fuck you, you evil shit! If you are personally offended by this, then get lost. I am personally offended by you. I despise you. If you honestly value money over a person’s life than I hate you.
	Whenever I go off on a rant about Bush or America, there are always some Americans who blast me and I’m always left wondering “Why?” Why are they attacking me? I’m not attacking them, just the things I see wrong with their country. Things that they too should see as wrong. I’ve said a few times to them that if they’re defending what I’m attacking, then there is something seriously wrong with them.
	There is something wrong with anyone who is offended by what I’ve just said.
	Fuck you, you sick fucks. We will stamp out your kind some day (and not through genetic cleansings or anything like that, but by education and by teaching people to respect life).
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I am a pacifist. I don’t support physical violence in any form (weirdly enough though, I do use psychological and verbal violence a lot). This does mean that if it came down to it, I would rather die at the hands of terrorists than fight them through violence. I consider the use of force by the US and their allies (including Canada) to count as terrorism. It’s all terrorism. We bomb them, they bomb us, we bomb them, they bomb us, and so it goes until you don’t know who started it, what it’s really about or why it should continue.
	I won’t lower myself to that level and I would hope that some of you think the same way. 
	And despite what some believe, this does not mean I’m not “worthy of living.” Was Gandhi not “worthy of living”? I just won’t debase myself in that way.
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What I find even sadder than the deaths that happened on September 11 last year is the deaths that happened because of it at the hands of the US. Vengeance doesn’t bring back the dead and violence just begets more violence. That, and they had a tendency to kill Afghani civilians rather than those who were actually responsible for the attack.
	Because that is a whole lot different than what happened to you, you fuckers.
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Sometimes I want to get a big tank of oil and a hose and go around, waking up to people who are in the Oilmen’s pockets and just spray them. And I mean, SPRAY them. All over and in their eyes, ears, noses, mouths, everywhere. Then, when I’m done, just whisper in their ear “That’s what you’re doing to the earth.”
	The only thing that would make that better is if people paid me to do that. Then I could be just like Them. 
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Children do not have automatic healthcare. Just had to say it again for you.