This Post Has Nothing To Do With Guns

Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Canada Sends More Troops to Afghanistan Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns The Economy Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns World Junior Hockey Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns RAV Line Goes Ahead Guns Guns Guns Christmas Guns uns Guns Guns Guns Guns iPod Guns uns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns uns Guns Guns Guns Guns 50 Cent Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes Guns uns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns uns Guns Guns Guns Guns.

Sorry about that. I just....

I dunno, I'm feeling the effects of post-traumatic Stressmas Syndrome. Can't think outside the Boxing Day. As I sat here contemplating another post on Lee Matassi and the fact that his accused murderer was to be spending Christmas day at home with friends and family, I decided to take a break and postpone it until the trial. I figured that with all the expected Bethlemayhem of Yule go nuts roasting on an open fire that I should practice what I preach and get down and dirty with some non-consumer Christmas action.

My family was also participating in a stress free, gift free Christmas, and, no they are not Jehovas Witnesses. We had a nice visit with them in Surrey. I was hoping the next venue on the schedule would be similar, considering my girlfriend's mother had just lost her own mother. I assumed it would be a solemn family affair with lots of family bonding and very little gift giving. Well, I was totally wrong and ended up suffocating in a sea of wrapping-paper, which I admittedly tore to shreds as I opened each glistening jewel of hyper market materialism. The obligatory iPod, bored games, world junior hockey tickets (man that referee sucked), Blackspot Unswooshers, a 100 dollar bill, gift certificates to London Drugs, dinner at Umberto's, movie tickets, not to mention the ever-present socks, pajamas, toiletries, chocolate, snacks, scarves, britta filters, and kitchen gadgets.

Don't get me wrong, I love the common-in-laws to death, it was all just so overwhelming especially considering the underlying current of unspoken sadness do to the death of Sarah's grandmother.

Then a bullet ricocheted down a Toronto street and hit me in the heart. I searched for answers. I re-read and re-read the comments left on my elegy to Lee. I listened to the talking heads preach their antiquated calls for gun control. I listened as prominent gun lobbies fired back. Then, as I was scanning the infotainment pages often mistakenly referred to as news, I had a brief moment of clarity. It was there on page three of Dose, a picture of Younge street featuring a hand written sign above police tape and crime scene investigations, urging people to continue shopping. "Enter through the alley for the Futureshop Boxing Day blowout!"

No need to pause. Business as usual.

What was the connection between my ennui the morning before, and the images that lay before me? Materialism. In the endless quest for status, disaffected youth unable to access the fountain of never ending happiness that consumerism spews, turn to violence to achieve the same adrenaline rush as boxing day shoppers, or kids on christmas day. The gun represents the backdoor to mindless minimum wage labour. It is an escape route from never ending suburban malaise. Sure, the usual suspects are pointed at, but characters like 50 Cent and The Game are only mirrors of a world that attaches value to possesions at all costs. Corporate criminals are no different; fudging numbers and insider trading. Its a dog eat dog world and we're running out of dogs. This is progress?

What are the politics of boredom?

The answer to this much hyped gun issue, in my mind, does not lie in quick political decisions like banning handguns, but in the livability of our cities. Poverty, overwork, suburban sprawl, arts and culture, community development, child care, alternative education, decriminalization of street drugs, decriminalization of graffiti, public space, green space, public transit, pollution, mental pollution such as advertisements, billboards, bathroom ads, sidewalk ads, media hype, media monopoly, genuine progress, our connection or lack there-of to nature, dependence on the automobile, and of course the even larger question of unfettered market corporatism and the waves of boredom it nurtures and necessitates.