AND THE WHITE LIBERAL OF THE YEAR AWARD GOES TO...
...Linda McQuaig of Toronto. In today's Toronto Star, local 'author' McQuaig argues that it was Mike Harris' tax cuts a decade ago that are the reason why there is violence in Toronto now.My favourite part is when she, a white, latte socialist tries to get into the mindset of an urban Jamaican gang memeber...
"And when some kids behaved badly, it banned them from school with a "zero tolerance" policy. Where did we think they would go?
For an angry teen who feels excluded from the mainstream, a gang offers a sense of belonging, prestige, dignity and status among his peers. The mainstream offers less and less."
I do not argue that there should be no social programs for kids and teens. Far from it. But the Linda McQuaig's of the world, from the comfort of their organic home garden centres in the beaches as they sip an afternoon Sangria while listening to Sarah McLaughlin, only see the world from a neo-Marxist prism.
It is only about poverty for them.
I lived in the poorest riding in all of Ontario for five years, the Davenport riding. There was a rough element there to be sure, but there were no gang problems. Sure, the local heroin dealer made all of his calls in front of the local grocery store, but by and large it wasn't too bad. The demographic of Davenport is largely Italian and Portugese with a growing number of Muslims also entering the area. Further south there is a growing population of white university students who hold communist meetings on a bi-weekly basis to overthrow democracy (they advertised heavily around the Dufferin Mall). OCAP has their base there too. It was and remains a very poor area of Toronto and statistically more poverty bound than the areas where the gangs are based.
But no overwhelming violence problem.
First off there are a few reasons why the left cannot fathom the complexity of this issue; indeed it is only now during the election that they are even admitting the issue exists.
The left wants to keep this issue about social programs because it helps them avoid talking in specifics. It is not 'poor people' who are in the gangs committing the violence in Toronto.
It is largely young Jamaican men who are in the gangs committing the violence in Toronto. Period.
But to admit this then opens up a whole new quandry for leftists. Then they have to ask why it is that young Jamaican men are forming brutal gangs in Toronto and not men who are Chinese, Sikh, white, Muslim, Italian, Portugese etc.
It means they have to open themselves up to accusations of racism from fellow leftists.
This is a much more complex issue. Dealing with it means having to deal with intangibles such as culture.
It means asking questions about how our entertainment industry glorifies young black gangs through entertainment, music and videos. It means talking about how gang culture glamorizes death and violence; shows malice towards women; teaches how to have sex and procreate indiscriminently but not how to deal with the resulting offspring.
It means asking questions about the breakdown of family in society and how modern secular, culture glorifies its breakdown. It means asking questions about moral relativism and right and wrong. It means asking questions about what is taught in our schools and that perhaps once a society kills off its belief in God, the next thing it begins to kill off is itself.
McQuaig says the angry youth (she never deals with the race issue) feel excluded from the mainstream. Does she think this is 1955 with James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause?
In contempory culture, gangs ARE the mainstream. Even more to the point, the overwhelming number of perpetraitors are not poor; they are middle class and from the suburbs
The sad thing is, I do not believe we should stop social programs for disenfranchised youth of any culture. But that is only a start to solving the problem. A problem that is getting bigger everyday and has not even begun to see the boiling point yet.
Now I also do not agree with some of those on the right who will only talk about tougher criminal sentences although that too needs to be addressed.
The real issue is one of culture.
For years I and many others have been talking about the rising tide of gang violence in Toronto. We were called racist. We were told it wasn't happening. We were told there was no safer place on earth but enlightened and evolved, secular Toronto. The problem got worse.
Remember the last mayoral election when David Miller insisted-INSISTED!-there was no violence problem in Toronto. That the biggest problem in Toronto was the island airport?
Now the left realizes it is a problem...and I fear it will only get worse.
Have a safe and Happy New Year.
posted by Nicol DuMoulin @ 5:43 AM
11 Comments:
This is as ludicrious argument that poverty turned the 9/11 perpetrators into terrorists. This is something so absurd, so stupid, that only an intellectual could come up with.
and it leaves the obvious out of the picture...Rich or poor, there should be consequences for breaking the law, and disturbing the peace( 'walking' after being charged with carrying a dangerous weapon takes away the peace in a neighborhood)VF
hi sweetie
think I'm gonna have to identify here as a leftie, am white, struggling to remain $mi/uddle class$ u know but stayin' a-ware, do consume the ohcassional latte, west tdot near the park, can't stand sarah mc etc. etc but hey yo as the saying goes (sit down honey cause this is gonna be difficult) what u call cultcha I call capitalism yeah for me it's the free enterprise profits first way of life that pushes black gangs, guns, misawjennie and what u call cultcha cause it brings in the bucks
so does the drug business kiddo and whadda u gonna do without the bucks
problems u betcha - dumb stupid ass kids with guns thinking 'oh shit' when it's already too late schools not for lack of trying failing to engage and educate poverty too poverty counts guy as does depression addiction as does the center right $mi/uddle class$ jargon y'r trying to think with deny it or not till the shit hits the fan again - the capitalist market sells violence and perps with fantasies smaller colder meaner and stupider than bullets buy it oh yeah and guns they're a problem - any guns
I have a limited knowledge of crime and punishment. I took law in high school and I'm majoring in Sociology in University but I have taken a psych and a philosophy course.
I go to a crazy left University and I had a very difficult time this term trying to wrap my head around what would get me a good grade in my Soc. of Social Policy Class.
In terms of punishment I haven't done a lot of research, but the main conclusions I've heard from academia is that rehabilitation is better than retributive justice. But I had a really hard time this term trying to accept that pregnant addicts need rehabilitation instead of punishment.
What I want to see is hard evidence that proves the most EFFECTIVE punishment for different types of crimes. In other words, murderers=retributive, drug addicts=rehabilitation. But in crazy-lefty-land (AKA Trent U) I get the feminist oppression theory shoved down my throat and when I raise my hand in lecture class asking "where does personal responsibility come in?" for these pregnant addicts, people jump on me with the "poverty" and "unequal opportunities" etc...
Can't wait for next term....*rolls eyes*
Mitch,
Thanks for the comment. I correct you on one point. You did mean 'pseudo' intelluctual, I presume.
Anonymous,
Thanks. I agree, the law should be applied equally to rich or poor. The rich shouldn't be able to walk based on wealth and the poor shouldn't be able to walk based on oppression. Now we have wealthy lawyers getting poor people off based on oppression. Society pasy the price.
Anonymous,
Thanks for your...er...performance.
Capitalism is the problem?
Well, you have point. There certainly are no gang problems in marxist, communist or socialist states. They aren't needed. The government does a very efficient job of slaughtering and killing it's citizens all by itself. What are you up to...100 million in the past century alone?
Beats capitalism anytime for efficiency and expediency to kill.
As for your 'performance'...who says only capitalists are racist?
Are you really Ted Danson in disguise getting ready for a Friar's roast?
Sharon,
Thanks for your comment.
You know how I feel. Sadly, your classmates have been brainwashed by certain 'types'. They are driven by ideology and care not about the individual human being. They worship the state and only wish to do that which empowers it.
It is exactly thier way off, moral relativism that has led to this problem.
Let them stay in thier own enclaves while performing circle jerks over Noam Chomsky and the Marxist Leninist reader. They're way of thinking is what has got us into this mess.
Funny...things never got really bad in our culture until the relativists and the Marxists took over.
see that's my point so here's a question - in what way would the deficiencies of communism extenuate the deficiencies of capitalism - and here's a proposal - lot's of lefties are capitalists -
Anonymous,
Of course plenty of leftists are capitalists; most are. That is part of the hypocrisy that I loathe.
Look at Naomi Klein; she goes to third world and Latin American countries preaching the edicts of marxism and communism while she herself gets rich off of captialism with her rock star friends at home.
Similar statements of the 'I've got mine but you shouldn't have your's' category could also be made about people such as Chris Martin, John Kerry, Michael Moore and Paul Martin.
As for communism and capitalism. Of course on paper, both sound good. In practice, for all its deficiencies only capitalism works. It gives people choice. Some use that choice unwisely, but at least one has a chance to succeed.
Communism is a contradiction in philosophy. It guarantees 'equality' but only if all acquiesce their individual choice and desire to that of the state which is superior to all.
Hence there is no equality.
If people disagree with the state, they are killed.
Communism guarantess equality in that it allows all humans to be equally miserable.
Something I always hear in the media from lefty's (do I really need to list them all?) is that the problem is multi-faceted. Why then are they only looking at the social aspect?
Just a thought.
Good post as usual - I'm glad someone else is talking about this (just catching up on my reading).
It's when they try to solve something that you know it's time to be scared.
Come join the Tories in Toronto blogroll and show Canada that Toronto has a right and is not totally filled with kooks.
http://toriesintoronto.blogspot.com/
Les, Canadianna, Toronto Tory,
Thank you for your comments. I think too often leftists just attach the words complex, multi-faceted and nuanced as labels as opposed to actually making them have the real meaning.
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