Comments on G Valentino is Random: ...wondering what's so funny about empathy

Don't get me wrong - I don't condone their...

2009-06-25T12:57:01.246-04:00

Don't get me wrong - I don't condone their behavior either.

I just see where it comes from. People are animals.

But freaking out after one day? That is irrational...

2009-06-24T22:08:05.087-04:00

But freaking out after one day? That is irrational. Condoning acts of violence against someone because you don't agree with them? That is hostile.

After I wrote the post yesterday, a picketer had to be rushed to hospital after being struck by a car. The driver didn't want to wait for them to cross the public property where they were picketing and hit them.

THE. PERSON. AIMED. THEIR. CAR. AND. HIT. THEM. ONE. DAY.

I don't care if the last one went on long. You publish someone's private address, you attempt to murder another person, and that is the very definition of irrational behavior, which is my main point in this piece. And sadly, it is not atypical of the response that the people of this city have.

I'm sorry that you were in a situation where you could lose your job because of a strike, and I know there are people in the same boat. That's messed up. Telling people that someone should jump in front of a bus to stop it (which was in my linked post on The Luddite Times, and something I know you'd never do) ? Twice as messed up. And as well, you would have recourse by filing a wrongful dismissal suit and taking it up with the groups and organizations set up to defend those workers using rights and laws that came out of strikes.

Look, I'm not saying strikes are happy fun picnics in the parks. But as much as not getting your garbage picked up stinks (HAW), not getting paid the whole time stinks even worse. It's not like either side really wanted this to happen.

My wife walked a picket line when she was a TA at McMaster. She was one of the people who marched in front of the parking lot. I don't want to live in a world where doing that means that some business student who might have to, heaven forbid, work a little harder to make up time thinks that that would be a justifiable reason to tell people where we lived so that they could throw their books through our window, or sideswipe her with his car.

Interestingly enough, she was on strike for a deal that would take effect after she left the school. She had nothing to gain and everything to lose by picketing.

Oh, and people who think transit strikes, and/or t...

2009-06-24T17:31:57.178-04:00

Oh, and people who think transit strikes, and/or the subway going down, are no big deal, have never had to work for a tyrant.

Some employers don't care that you have no car, no one you can car pool with, can't afford a taxi, that there's a transit strike, and you live 20 km from your job. If you aren't there on time, tough shit. You risk getting fired. I worked for such a tyrant.

Let me tell you - I freaked every time the subway went down. And knew that if there was a strike, I would lose my job.

I understand why people are freaking a little abou...

2009-06-24T17:27:15.326-04:00

I understand why people are freaking a little about the garbage strike. The last one wasn't that long ago (do they really have to strike at EVERY contract negociation?), and it went on way too long.

People are frustrated, and perceive that they have no power to affect the situation. (whether that's true or not)

GAH! The more I looked at the list the more I thou...

2009-06-23T10:21:11.573-04:00

GAH! The more I looked at the list the more I thought "There's one I'm missing..what is it what is it?" and that was it!

That was a prime example, because people couldn't get to work, but they could get to the beer store! And it was the best way to find all the Maritimers who moved here during the diaspora, because they were saying 'What snowstorm?'

Seriously, though.

The response to the strike in Toronto is in stark ...

2009-06-23T09:55:06.534-04:00

The response to the strike in Toronto is in stark contrast to the response to the bus strike here in Ottawa. People continued living. There were some complaints, but nowhere near what I hear about in Toronto. Also, you left out the snowstorm/army debacle. The over-reacting starts at the top (at least in the Lastman days) and spreads downward.

It's a point that I could almost blog about ag...

2009-06-23T09:15:42.626-04:00

It's a point that I could almost blog about again, but it goes a little something like this:

The structure, the elements, the idea of Toronto are great. I love the communities, the diversity, the orderlyness of it. It has all the ammenities of a B Class city (not my definition, but an actual urban planning/sociological definition that puts it in a class of cities like Milan) and yet I never feel isolated or dwarfed by it. I love that I walk from Little Italy to Little Ethiopia, and it's only one block, and they're not tossing flaming garbage cans back and forth all day. That? Is pretty awesome.

The people of Toronto, though, in how they move as a mob, are NOT attractive. The fourth estate (the mob) moves in a reactionary, conservative, selfish way. Vis "Bike lanes = war on car", "One gun death = ban Caribanna", "People involved in a genocide protesting = Anarchy in the streets lock them all up" (and in the last case, there were people saying that maybe the Tamils deserve what they get...seriously). There is so much about this city that is petty and navel gazing.

It's not the band I hate but their fans.

It's like Jimmy Breslin has always said about New York: I hate and love this city. I do not expect my faith in this city to reform it, nor do I expect the pettiness of it to stifle its promise. These are spheres of Toronto that exist concurrently and to a degree independent of each other.

Maybe it's the same in all cities, and having lived in a few places I have to imagine that it is. But there's something about Toronto, where it has all the structure and the potential to be ABOVE that seems to make the parts where it fails to live up to that promise so heartbreaking.

or : an asshole in motion tends to stay in motion?...

2009-06-23T08:36:03.482-04:00

or : an asshole in motion tends to stay in motion?

"As I've said before: I have faith in the...

2009-06-23T08:35:07.877-04:00

"As I've said before: I have faith in the city of Toronto. I have little faith in the people of Toronto."

Without the people a city is just a place to keep your stuff - it's the people that give it character (or strip it away). What kind of faith can you have in a place? That one day it's awesomeness will reform all the assholes that live there?