I love Toronto – it’s my home, where I live.
I love Chicago – it’s a second, musical home.
We’ve been reeling from an act of violence in Toronto today, which has outraged residents, and sent international news media tongues wagging. We are thrown into self-evaluation, self-reflection, and we’ve all expressed our concern and checked in with loved ones, grateful to be safe, grateful that this is not normal.
When I was in Chicago this April, I learned lots of stuff. One thing was this:
That weekend eight people were killed in gun violence. I confronted my hosts the next morning about these outrageous acts. I wondered why it was not headline news – why everyone was not talking about it. But I learned that this was status quo in Chicago. Not accepted or condoned, but normal, nonetheless.
In Chicago that Sunday morning, my ‘Te Deum’ was sung in church – ancient words of thanks, sung by Joan of Arc and King Henry V and hosts of other people thankful for their lives on earth. During mass we prayed for those victims of Chicago violence, and thankfully someone brought forth the names of the victims, and we prayed for each one of them, and we knew their ages and their names and in our prayerful state we imagined their lives lost, and what they could have been.
We remembered their names.
This blog is only meant to cling to a hope that Torontonians are still altruistic enough not to accept killing as normal – to encourage rage against violence – and to press for solutions, because we can never accept this as normal.
It cannot be normal.
I pray that you are right, Stephanie. I don’t want my grandchildren to grow up in a world where this is considered normal.
This happened around our daughter Hilary’s church, Stephanie. She is involved in planning a vigil. We agree we do not want it to become normal.
I grew up in the Danforth and Coxwell area. My piano teacher lived at Monarch Park. Occasionally I ventured as far as Greenwood. Then as I grew older, I ventured even farther, even as far as Pape. This area of town is part of me, my childhood and early adulthood. This sort of tragedy is NOT supposed to happen in Canada, let alone in Toronto. Yes I feel bad for the people who were killed and those who were injured. It seems the killer was himself a victim of mental illness. I Iong ago learned that bad things happen to good people, but that does not make it easier to watch or to comprehend. How can we find a way to stop this senseless killing.
Amen, Stephanie.
ENOUGH! May God help us all. May this city be endowed with the wisdom and social incite needed in order for all to arrive at an intersection of calm. A calm which inspires the vision and clarity necessary to identify root causes of this violence, which is becoming a social illness/disease.
All illness and disease require treatment; but first must be diagnosed. Let us all – as a city, as humankind – open our hearts and minds and find a way to ensure that this mode of anti social and violent behavior NEVER BECOMES THE NORM. In Toronto (and in all cities, really) the norm should be, and must become, random acts of kindness.
Thank you, Stephanie, for these very helpful insights and reflections, and for your music, which is always life-affirming and expressive of human community. Being out here in Victoria, but having lived for many years within a few blocks of the tragedy, today was an opportunity for us to reconnect with those we know and love in Riverdale — some in person, some in spirit — and that, in its own way, was a blessing. As, I gather, was the experience of so many people tonight, purposely coming out to walk the Danforth, just as they would on a “normal” summer’s night. We were (and are) walking in solidarity with them. Ian & Marilyn
Wherever human beings are, wonderful acts of love and creativity sometimes happen, but also dreadful, sometimes incomprehensible acts occur. We all face individually a great moral challenge in how we respond to this black side of life that is ever present. It is clearly wrong just to look the other way and continue to live in our own, hopefully safe little worlds. This is how many respond. It is understandable but unedifying. But people who are in a permanent state of grief will inevitably suffer a breakdown of health that will blight their lives and render them incapable of any practical help to the victims of violence. The challenge is, on the one hand, to find that balance of never failing to be appalled by evil and find compassion and to try to do what we individually can to mitigate the evil around us and foster good. Truth be told, most of us probably don’t do nearly enough to help. But, on the other hand, we need optimism and cheerfulness to function properly. We must somehow keep looking for hope amongst the misery – what a challenge!