Monday Musings
Were you shocked at this weekend's news reports of violence in the streets of Toronto? As we approach Canada Day and celebrate being Canadian I reflect on our image as being the friendly nation and how our image in the worlds eye on the weekend was not a good one. I feel saddened by the violent protesters at the G20 summit as I watch the news reports of vandalism as downtown Toronto tries to rebuild itself. I am told that these summits always end in violence, which is why perhaps they thought Canada was a good place to hold it. I am not politically minded and don't really know what the summit was all about While watching the news they referred to the replies appearing on Twitter. The one that stood out was a Toronto native visionary named Lon who said "World leaders! Next time 20 of you want to get together, use Skype." Why was all this money spent on security, why did we not use technology or seclude the meeting unknown to the public? All sorts of questions are raised.
When will people realize that violence is not the answer? I was glad however to hear of other people having their own G20 summit if you will. Peaceful gatherings coordinated on the same weekend. The fine people at Grail Springs chose that weekend to host their own symposium to world change. It was an opportunity for world leaders to get together and discuss ways we can impact our planet and really make some changes. Sadly I was not able to attend. Apparently though they have these events every so often so perhaps another one will come up and I will be able to go.
I also heard through friends on Facebook that they had their own G20 Summit by having a peaceful BBQ with their friends representing Canada, United States, Mexico, Colombia, Serbia and Chile. We have to remember that even though the news tells us of all the violence we still must focus our efforts to Peace and look for the positive that is seldom seen in the news. It is easy to quickly get lost in the news negative outlook because as humans we thrive on chaos. There were countless people in Toronto going down to see what sort of violence might break out. Imagine that!
What I do know is we need more like minded people gathering to discuss peace and focus on solutions rather than focus on all the negatives. Take some time out to let your leaders know how you feel. Don't think that your voice does not matter. We need to start standing up and being heard.
Flickr photo by Commodore Gandalf Cunningham
Couldn't agree more with you on that. People often get attracted to the atrocious sooner than they feel motivated by the good or pleasant.
ReplyDeleteBarkha Dhar
dharbarkha.blogspot.com/
Actually I didn't really hear about it. I got a flyer at the parade on thursday about some meeting about it but I didn't know anything happened. I'm sort of out of the news leap.
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