COWBOYS AND INSANITY

This past seven days the world has watched transfixed on the events in Boston. The devastating detonation of two home made '' Pressure cooker'' bombs; which took the life of 23 year old Lingzi Lu, a Boston University graduate student, Krystle Campbell a 29-year-old restaurant manager and Eight-year-old Martin Richard of Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.  They died for simply showing up at a marathon to cheer on the participants. It is excruciatingly sad. The bombing also left more then 170 people wounded; many of them with severed limbs. These events are alleged to have been perpetrated it was later learned by two brothers. One of the Brothers was killed in a gun fight early Friday morning and the second was captured in the early evening of that same day. I won' t mention their names in this blog or where they are from as in my mind it is irrelevant. If the are actually guilty (only one will eventually face trial) then they deserve no further recognition for the carnage, pain, devastation and destruction they have caused. The ones who deserve consideration are the ones mentioned who lost their lives or who have forever had their lives altered. My thoughts are with them.

This Blog is about a few issues that seemed to go unnoticed or certainly under reported during the 5 day media orgy. While they spent hour after hour tripping over themselves, drooling, speculating, drawing conclusions and generally just confusing the hell out of everyone; three very important issues either got no attention, the wrong attention or very little attention.

1. The number of law enforcement officials on the ground to apprehend one 19 year old suspect. 9000 vs 1.

2. The number of terrorist attacks elsewhere in the world during the same 7 day period from day one of the bombings to the capture of the final suspect.

3. The notion of  ''self radicalization'' as it relates to foreign nationals who immigrate to the United States compared to this same phenomenon which occurs with born and bread US citizens.

Lets start by the first one.

1. It was repeated over and over again as the events of Friday played out that law enforcement had over 9000 '' boots'' on the ground, searching and trying to apprehend the final suspect. The cameras saw them at every turn; trucks, cars, vans, armoured personnel carriers, helicopters, officers everywhere; guns drawn, ready for action. The number of participants from various agencies was simply staggering. Boston Police, Watertown Police, Cambridge Police, State Troopers, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, ATF, National Guard, The Hostage Rescue Team from Quantico. These were the Agencies with agents on the ground. It has also been reported but not confirmed that elite teams from both Delta, Rangers and yes the famous Seal Team were also present ( in this case Team 5/ Team 6 was the one that got Bin Laden) . Think about this for a minute. This was an event (two homemade bombs) allegedly perpetrated by two individuals. That's two people, not 20, 40 or 70 organized individuals who executed multiple elaborate attacks against the United States. It was two guys; one 26 year old and one 19 year old. The media wasn't doing any analyses of what this meant, about how this completely lopsided ratio highlighted a major weakness in the US ability to mange these types of attacks. At the end of the evening on Friday, once the final suspect had been apprehended the representatives from all the agencies mentioned above where back slapping and applauding one another as each of them took to the microphone in front of a worldwide audience during the press conference. It struck me as ridiculous. In my mind it was like saying, '' there is this small lake 1km square and we put 9000 fishing lines in it to catch the one fish left, what an amazing feat we accomplished when we actually caught it''. No doubt there was incredible dedication, resiliance and determination demonstrated by all these men and women. That they are all heros (an MIT officer lost his life). The simple fact though, like it or not, it took way to many of them.

There is a bad, bad message that was sent here. While all the agency heads are busy celebrating their ''catch'' and the President is congratulating everyone within ear shot. They have failed to realize that they have sent a dangerous message to the hostiles in the world. The message they wanted you and me to believe is, ''we will do whatever it takes to bring those to justice' who harm, kill or injure our citizens''. Its a noble statement and a noble ideology. It is what they are supposed to do. How they did it however, is flawed to its core. What it really sent as a message is, if you attack us in multiple regions at the same or different times we will eventually not have the required resources to hunt you down. That in fact you can paralyze some of the biggest cities in the world grinding every semblance of normal life to a complete standstill. Mass transit, commerce, education, finance and so on. The statement '' shelter in place'' is self explanatory. It tells everyone that you can shut it all down and paralyze the greatest superpower in the world (ok we can debate if that's still true considering China but that's for another blog). The message which was sent as the media drooled over itself and in many cases acted like a dog in heat was not the message you want to sent to your enemies. Especially those you cannot see or find. In the final analyses the back slapping and self congratulations will go on. Its what Americans do, its what they need to do. Its how they move forward and tell themselves they are safe and freedom and goodness will always prevail. If I was them I would be worried, very worried.

2. During the same 7 days which just passed in Boston there were 140 people killed in worldwide terrorist attacks. Yes you read that right, 140 people lost their lives and countless hundreds were wounded in Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, India, Afghanistan and other places in the same 7 day period. I am sure some of you will point out that many of the places where these terrorist attacks occurred where in places in the world where this is ''normal''. Regardless of the fact that we might consider it normal I can guarantee you that the families who lost young children or young adults or family members do not consider those attacks anywhere near, ''Normal''. Did you hear of any of these attacks? In one of them 54 people were killed by one terrorist bomb, in another 18 by a terrorist bomb at a church. Did you hear about any of those? Most probably you didn't. I bet however, that you could basically get around Boston now without a GPS or road map based on all the media coverage you watched. What is the message here? There certainly is. It is this; If the world is under attack by terrorists then nowhere is safe. Not in the US, England, France, Canada or anywhere else. As long as it predominates in one place the risk is it will occur in any place is very likely..

3. ''Self radicalization'' Did you hear the media carrying on about this as a way to appease those searching for the answer, ''why''. Why would two seemingly normal young men who basically grew up in the United States perpetrate such a heinous act in a Country that welcomed them with open arms. The question itself is justifiable and understandable. However the question was being asked with a religious or ethnic slant. This is where it goes wrong. Not everything can be written off to a global hatred for the United States. Not everything can be written off to Foreign policy or 911 or Iraq or Afghanistan. The fingers cannot always be pointed in this direction. In fact if you consider the most recent political climate in the United States you can actually see how close they walk this '' self radicalization''  line. You see it in the political propaganda that today is the media in the United States. There is no more unbiased reporting. Each 24hr news channel is either left or right. All politics today is left or right. On one side is the, ''crazies'' and the other side the ''normals'' and whichever side your on the title is interchangeable. You can feel this in the recent, '' right to bear arms'' debate currently ragging. The 2nd amendment zealots who you know could just as easily '' self radicalize'' if ever they thought their rights to own guns was in jeopardy. The United States has seen this home grown phenomena before. You need only mention the names of Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Michael & Lori Fortier, Eric Rudolph. These individuals are born & raised Americans who ''self radicalized'' and together through their two acts killed 169 and injured 791 American citizens in Oklahoma City and Atlanta. Look at the devastation these individuals caused. They were not ''naturalized'' Americans. They were not from a war torn part of the world, they did not practice a religion often identified as the axis of evil. No, they were Americans and they had no problem ' self radicalizing''. The truth be known. There are bad people everywhere. People who need to make a statement, to destroy, to attempt to manipulate, to create chaos. They can just as easily be two young men naturalized from a foreign land as from right at home. It does not matter how they got to where they got in executing their evil. What does matter is they will always be amongst us and to attempt to write it off as simply an issue from a foreign land is an insult to everyone's intelligence.

Time will march on. It always does, The families and friends of those devastated by the Boston bombings will move on. Painfully slow, time will march on for them without those they love. The scars and burden of the destruction will live on forever in the bodies and minds of those injured by this terrorist act. It is the unfortunate reality of the world we now find ourselves in. Perhaps we could find and invest the same type of energy that 9000 individuals did on Friday in finding a way to make the world a better place where this kind of atrocity does not need to happen and where the media actually focus on something more then a game of Cowboys and Indians on steroids.

Rob

ANOTHER LIGHT GONE

REHTAEH PARSONS

On October 14, 2012 I wrote a Blog titled, '' 73 Sheets''. This Blog was a sad tribute and a reflection of our failures in protecting a young girl named Amanda Todd. This young girl had posted a Youtube video where she described, by using 73 sheets of paper, in front of the camera the hell she had been living. I remember the outrage of the moment. All the talking heads in government, the media, the education system and law enforcement telling anyone who would listen that they understood the challenges of our youth and that they had a plan, or the plan needed improvement or they were on top of the situation, or on and on. Obviously not. On April 4th a young 17 year old girl named Rehtaeh Parsons committed suicide by hanging herself. It appears that when she was fifteen years old she had been gang raped during a party where she became intoxicated. The rape was only the beginning of the decent into hell for this young girl. You see it seemed the four boys who allegedly raped her felt it was necessary to begin hounding her through the Internet, e-mails and Internet postings. Photos of the alleged incident (a boy smiling while he raped her as she vomited out a window) were circulated around her school, causing her to drop out and change schools in hopes that the bullying would end. It did not. Are you disgusted and sickened yet?

REHTAEH PARSONS

After some investigation by Canada's finest; it seemed there was a lack of evidence to arrest the 4 youths. Yes regardless of the photo evidence, the postings and the fact that she was being intimidated and bullied by these very same individuals it remained an unprosecuted offense. That is until the young woman could no longer stand the abuse she was facing and ended her life. Now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Halifax say a person who provided new information is willing to verify who the suspects are and cooperate with investigators. The reopening of the case comes after police were publicly criticized for their handling of the case. Wonderful is it not? This blog though is not about the GRC. Nor the alleged rapists. This Blog is about us. It is about us ( the adults) the same way it was in the Amanda Todd case. It is about our failure as a society to protect our most valued assets. We have increasingly dropped lower and lower in regards to our ability to fix anything which touches our youth. Rehtaeh lived in a world that 95% of today's adults who are over forty years old can not even begin to understand. You can stammer all you like about that statement; but just because you have a facebook page does not make you, ''aware'' or ''hip'' or ''wired in''.  Rehtaeh lived in a time where our technology has slowly crawled its was past our humanity. She lived in a time of single parent families, constant bombardment by social media, exposure to an over sexed media, of violent films, TV and video games. All of which twist and glorify every debauchery we can fantasise about. She lived in a time when your mistakes do not end in the basement of a friends house around a game of spin the bottle. She lived in a 24hr media and socially induced orgy of photos, tweets, facebook, texts, instagrams...and on and on.... She lived in a time where the adults are at the mercy of their children. A time where the power of technology is in the hands of our youth and adults just simply hang on for dear life.

AMANDA TODD

You see this in no longer a time where regardless of if you liked it or not your parents were still smarter then you. Our children are now masters of the devices and forms of communication and the parents, educators, politicians, law enforcement, and media simply try to keep up. Those mentioned here have no true way of helping the youth of today. Let alone Rehtaeh. They love to talk a big talk. You will see them in the days to come on your TV, Laptop, tablet or phone; telling anyone who will listen that they are working hard, that they are on top of the situation...blah, blah, blah...and our young people will continue to die needlessly. We have it wrong people. We truly do not know what the solution to the problem is. Bullying and intimidation knows only what we have taught it, yes what we have taught it, society owns bullying. Understand and accept that we have failed to squash it. We have lost compassion for our fellow man (woman). We are to wrapped up in ''us'' to think about anyone else. The first step would be admitting this. The second step is admitting that we really don't have a clue how to fix it. The third step is making a plan using those that might actually be able to lead us to the solution. Our children! For it is in them that the answers dwell. They are the ones we should be listening to, too find out how we the adults can implement measures and stop guards to prevent, or at the very least limit what is happening to them. They hold the key, we just need to get down from our high horses and accept that. Then use it to build them the future they deserve. Weakness is not in empowering those so they can help themselves. It is in being delusional and simply candy coating the problem. We have become experts at that.

AUDRIE POTT

Look at the pictures on my blog of these young girls. Take a look at the happiness, the innocence, the brilliance that has been robbed from our society. Take a look into the eyes of Rehtaeh, Amanda, Audrie and Marjorie. Then imagine your own children, question honestly if you know what goes on in their lives. Amongst your running from one important task to another. Do you really know what they experience? What they are exposed to? Take a look at your own children; girls or


AMANDA TODD

boys, bullying and intimidation knows no race, religion, social class or sex. I have 5 children, we have been blessed to not have any tragedy to date. Do I understand all the challenges my children face? Not even close. In fact I am ashamed because I like many of you struggle every day just to keep up with them. They go so fast, faster then we ever did. When I was 15 I had perhaps 10 really good friends and maybe 50 other people I knew as acquaintances or kids I went to school with. The farthest we communicated and interacted was within telephone reach, the bus or whoever's parent was willing to drive us. That was the size of the circle I lived in. Today our children live in a circle of 600 on line

MARJORIE RAYMOND

friends. Hundreds and hundreds of acquaintances who come to them through a wireless connection from everywhere in the world. People with malicious motivations, predators, and generally bad people. They get access to our kids and we as adults are powerless to stop them. When I was 14 and someone strange was lurking around the neighbourhood every one knew and generally the parents took matters into their own hands, thereby quelling any potential threat. Today we as parent are impotent. We like to believe we still have a ''handle'' on what they do, what they experience. The truth is we don't and in accepting that begins the possibility of fixing it. Just because you have a smart phone does not make you smart.

Today the family and friends of Rehtaeh struggle with their loss. Society lost another opportunity at brilliance. Are they to blame? No. Are we to blame? Like it or not, until we pull our heads out of the sand, we are. There is opportunity in every loss, a chance for redemption, a chance to make right the wrongs. We have to truly want it. The failure to act is to doom ourselves to a never ending cycle of pain and loss. We can take back over the future by helping build a strong foundation for our children. To do this means giving up our sense of power and allowing them to show us how.

Rob