On violence and hate

I don't usually like to get "political", but what's another voice in a sea of opinions?

Three things happened this week:

1. I was never a devoted fan or follower of Christina Grimmie but I was just as shocked as the next person to learn that she was shot and killed by some deranged fan who showed up to her concert with at least one gun.

2. Some dude walked into a gay dance club and shot and killed and injured a bunch of people. Trump accepted thank-yous from no one. A short time later, another man was caught before launching his plan of attack at a pride celebration or something.

3. A patient walked into our office wearing a green t-shirt that said "BAN ISLAM"; and not only did it say "BAN ISLAM" - on the front along with "BAN ISLAM" was an acrostic poem with adjectives that spelled ISLAM (can't remember it all - S was "SUICIDAL", L was "LYING", A was "ANTI-SOCIAL"); there was also something on the back as well but, again I can't remember. It was a terrible shirt anyway.

Three things to take away from all this:

1. There has to be gun control. Any argument against this is bullshit. I really don't understand how many people don't see that by providing easy access to guns pretty much allows the possibility of a person with a gun doing terrible things with it. Yes, there are other factors that go into these mass shootings like mental illness, or terrorism, but if you just take guns out of the equation, then there would be fewer shootings. How did I come to this conclusion? It took several pages of equations that almost got me kicked off a flight, but essentially: NO GUNS = NOTHING TO SHOOT PEOPLE WITH.

2. Anyone can commit and act of terror. Yes, the majority of it has been carried out by individuals who have some radicalized interpretation of Islamic faith, but this does not mean people with other religious beliefs or backgrounds aren't dangerous either. This also does not mean that every Islamic person is a terrorist. You just can't generalize like that. Each and every person is different and to assume they are one way based on how another person acts is incredibly wrong. So, Donald Trump, go trample over a pile of Legos.

3. You'd think Canadians were all friendly and peaceful, BUT, like I said above you can't generalize. And this guy who walked into our clinic shows exactly why. I honestly can't believe there are people in this country who support such idiotic ideas. "ISLAM" isn't the problem. ISIS is. The idea of banning a whole religion because of a small group of people is as unfair as that time the one kid in your grade 3 class didn't do his homework and so the teacher gave you all extra homework.

Sigh. That t-shirt was a disaster. That acrostic poem was the probably stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life.

The world is a terrible place right now and I don't know why I'm still here.

Also, if Trump becomes president, you can probably expect to see me at the Canada-US border, adding eighty more stories to this wall he wants to build.