Normally I shy away from talking about current events on this blog. It’s not that I don’t have opinions I could share about whatever the latest thing to grab the gnat-like attention span of the media happens to be. I have very strong opinions about government, politics, and the directions nations take, and I could fill my blog with them no problem.

But for the most part, this is not that kind of blog. I don’t comment on current events very often because I want to address things deeper than that. Personal things, philosophical things, political things. Stuff like that.

But every now and then, something happens that compels me to address it. So it is with the recent shootings in the Parliament building that houses the House of Commons here in Canada.

For my American friends, that’s the seat of government. A lone mentally unstable homeless crackhead got loose in there and ended up shooting some people and Canada is, quite understandably, in somewhat of an uproar about it. It is an event which resonates deep for every single Canadian, and as a Canadian, I feel I must share my feelings about it.

I express some of my feelings about it here.

That gives you the gist of it. As with similar tragedies in the USA, there is nothing really to be learned from it and nothing we can really do to keep this sort of thing from happening again.

It is the nature of the human beast to want to assign meaning to emotionally potent events, especially negative ones. We always want to think things are as important as they are upsetting. If something very frightening like this happens, then it must mean that someone didn’t do their job right and someone should be changed and something has to be done about it.

Otherwise, we would have nothing to do with all the strong emotions that have been aroused that are telling us we have to DO something and we would have to face the fact that sometimes we are helpless before the cruel and unfeeling hand of fate.

So whenever something like this happens, Something Must Be Done. The idea that something very upsetting could happen and there is nothing we could have done about it is unthinkable. Our emotions are screaming at us to act, and so We Can’t Just Sit Here And Do Nothing, even if that is exactly what we should be doing.

And politicians and pundits are swift in providing that Something, and that Something just happens to be the thing that advances their particular agenda or grinds their particular axe. What a coincidence! They take advantage of people’s emotional state to get people to sign away their permanent freedoms under the influence of a temporary fear.

Witness all the freedom-eroding things that the government of the USA got away with in the name of 9/11.

They will even try to convince you that signing away your freedoms is your patriotic duty, but nothing could be further from the truth. Your patriotic duty is to remember that you are just as safe today as you were before the shootings and that nothing has really changed and thus refuse to led the fearmongers and sowers of distrust stampede you into doing something stupid or supporting something you never would have supported before.

Sometimes, nothing can be done. Sometimes, the most patriotic thing to do is nothing at all. I consider it the duty of all Canadians in this time of crisis to stand up for their country by refusing to support any changes to Canadian society based on what was nothing more than a freak occurrence that, in all probably, will never happen again no matter what we do.

So why do anything?

This isn’t a warning sign. It’s not the beginning of a trend. It’s not a symptom of a terrible disease that has taken hold in Canada. It’s not just the tip of any icebergs. And it’s not confirmation that there is anything wrong with anyone’s religion.

I can’t stress that enough. Religion was not a factor in this event. The shooter was a mentally unstable homeless crackhead. This says as much about the shooter’s religion as does the lunatic rantings about Jesus from the homeless guy on your corner. When people go crazy, seriously crazy, then whatever happens to be in their head ends up part of their insanity. Jesus, Buddha, their family, their pets, anything can be part of the psychosis of someone who has seriously gone off the deep end.

That is why I refuse to even mention his religion. Anyone who does so, even just in passing, is participating in bigotry, in the same way that mentioning someone’s race means you are participating in racism. The shooter’s crimes would be exactly the same were he Jewish, Christian, or worshiped Thor.

We have to push back against the fearmongering of the politicians and the pundits and make it clear that we, as a people, as a nation, are strong enough to decide for ourselves what if anything needs to be done, courageous enough to resist their attempts to panic us, and smart enough to see through their pathetic tricks and tell them, in no uncertain terms, that we will not ever again let ourselves be swayed by fear and terror.

Take a firm stance against panic thinking and for the rights and freedoms that make Canada a great nation. You are safe, Canada. Never forget that. No matter how scary the news gets, no matter how much easier (and fun) it is to just let yourself be swept up in the stampede, we will only retain our identities as free, compassionate, tolerant Canadians if we stand on our own for the true north strong and free.

You are safe. Make that your new motto. YOU ARE SAFE. Your children are safe. Your parents are safe. Your neighbours are safe. If you live in a modern democratic nation, you are the safest any human being has ever been in the history of the world.

Don’t let anyone tell you different.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.