It should not even be a story, let alone a feature item on any newscast.
“Je suis Charlie.” No, I am not.
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” is a much better description.
The debate on whether Hydro One engineer Shawn Simoes should or should not be fired is not the issue. It is the debate itself that is the problem. Both that post event, vigilante posse and the FHRITP gang are examples of the herd, the swarm, the wave being in charge, not the individual. Not one passing fan stopped the verbal attack on CITY-News reporter Shauna Hunt. Why do we accept grown men, from all walks of life, who should know better, and we still do nothing-- less than nothing, because we cheer on their behaviour?
We pay hundreds, no, thousands of dollars to view a convicted wife beater (Floyd Mayweather - Manny Pacquiao fight); we revere the actions of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice (who dragged his unconscious fiancée by the hair out of an elevator); and we even nod our heads understandingly when the defence minister tut-tuts “shame, shame” (he said the language was offensive and derogatory - this from the same man who called his girlfriend a b****).
Enough examples to demonstrate our hypocrisy? As long as we continue to reward bad behaviour by re-electing them after they lied and cheated; or buying tickets to their sport events after they were found guilty of doping or beating their girlfriends and worse; or by re-tweeting their vulgarities.
Sex sells, violence sells, hypocrisy is rampant. So re-tweet the “F-bomb”; laugh at the dirty jokes, pay them millions. Then look in a mirror to see the real problem.
Robert Bandurka
Humboldt, SK
