[URBAN NOTE] Passion loose on the streets

[rfmcdonald]

In the course of my evening's migration south Yonge Street, I passed that Foot Locker again. The memorial had grown hugely, flowers in vases and stuffed animals and impassioned memorial signs filling a third of the sidewalk, the crowds taking another third. One of the memorials announced a candlelight vigil being held at Yonge-Dundas Square just down the street even as I walked, and indeed there was a vigil, the CTV trucks bracketing a gathering that covered a tenth of the space of the square. I couldn't hear the slogans being shouted, though; the wind was too great.

The lessons of (among other dramas) the third-season Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Gingerbread"have come to my mind frequently this week. Horrible crimes can easily unleash significant political movements, massive pressures for change. The key is to make sure that the change is sensible, and frankly, I don't think that the current emphasis on law-and-order routines to the exclusion of deeper processes of social reform bodes well. That this is the season of a hotly-contested federal election only pushes the chances down

Martyrs are terrible things to have in functioning democratic societies, aren't they?