J-Neli wrote:I know that this thread is made with good intentions, but my first thought when I read about this was "so what? people get shot at in dozens of countries on a daily basis, yet they don't make the news".
The fact it occured in a "civilized" place like Montreal seems to make it more important. Not to say that you guys ignore other horrible global events that occur on a daily basis, but this is more of a comment about society and the media in general, with a pinch of "they create threads about this, but not for everything that happens in other countries on a daily basis."
I’m going to play devil’s advocate here, just for old time’s sake. Lots of people get shot in places all over the world. This is true, and I’m not here to deny it. However, I’ll be honest here, very few if any of those people shot matter to me. And another question should be asked here. Ok, people from other places in the world have been shot and killed, does that matter to you? What makes them matter to you, if they do? Did you know them, and/or do you really care for their well-being?
You see, I was in a friendly debate about the war in Iraq, and I used the whole innocent civilian argument against my friend there, to which he replied, “Innocent civilians, are these people that you knew?” My reply was no. “Did you want to know them?” No. “Have you ever wanted to, or do you want to go to Iraq and visit people over there?” Again, my response was no. “So tell me now, how is it these people matter to you?” Now I won the debate because I used his same argument against him saying that if we as a country don’t care about Iraqis, why is it we are trying to give them democracy? Because there are no weapons of mass destruction, and yes, their dictator was an ass, but why would we topple that regime if we didn’t care? But it still got me thinking. And sadly, I did come to this conclusion; I don’t care about anyone else but people I know getting shot. It’s absolutely animalistic, and to be honest with you, I’m actually disappointed in myself that I feel this way. I can turn on the news, hear about X number of servicemen and women dying in Iraq, and it will peek my interest for a short time. In the sense that I want to know, are any of them from TexAs? And if so, who are they and where are they from? Do I know them, or have I been to that town? But if the answer to the first question is no, then it’s off the radar from there.
This was a campus shooting at Dawson College in Montreal Canada. I cared because I know some of you here on this board are from Montreal, and are for the most part, college aged individuals. Canadians cared because this happened on their soil, and surely some of the people in Canada know someone who either goes to that school, or used to go to that school, and may even be going to that school currently. So that is why this topic gets more attention that say, another shooting in another land somewhere, no one wants to go. And I promise you that that land far away didn’t cover this shooting, but covered their topics of concern.