Maybe just for a moment....

Yesterday I packed my bags, ate breakfast, said goodbye to the lovely people at the Dakota Ridge Best Western and headed to the airport.  I was excited for a quick trip to Toronto and visit with my cousins before continuing to Ottawa.  I hadn't seen them for several months and had FINALLY finished knitting baby Lenny's sweater - a colourful fusion of bright red, orange, blue and yellow.  Heck, even a matching toque was waiting.  For fun, I had saved my bright pink Betsy Johnson shopping bag to put it in because face it, I thought - every girl should have a bit of Betsy Johnson in her life. (more on that another time).

I was at the airport in gobs of time.  I wandered it happily - discovering stores full of JUST the right kind of beautiful happy things I always delight in stumbling across - not one but multiple in this airport!  and SNOOPY! there was a Snoopy statue (turns out Charles Schultz was born in Minneapolis and grew up in St. Paul - COOL!).

I snapped pictures and browsed and made my way to the appropriate gate.  No plane.  A weary looking stewardess called up people who had connections to say the plane still hadn't left Toronto.  Weather and mechanical issues.  Expect a 2-3 hour delay.  Sigh.  Text to Jim and Tracey giving them the news that I wouldn't be there.  No hand off of a sweater to Lenny this trip.

Feeling tired for the wait but still content to be in a city where all my encounters with people had been really pleasant (Minnesota Nice they call it) I remembered seeing a United Airlines lounge and wondered if my Air Canada card would let me in.  It did.  Coffee, crackers, a comfy chair.  She tried to reroute me through Denver or Chicago but both flights were full.  I settled in for a wait that turned into about four hours.

CNN was on all the tv's and very quickly news of the shooting in Arizona became the primary and then only focus of the coverage.  And all of a sudden, the fact I was in a foreign country where the office I'd been in all week had a sign saying no guns allowed on the premise - hit home.  I tried to read, knit, write, anything but the news pounded through anything I tried to focus on.  It is said I feel too much, too deeply...  I wish somedays I could turn it off.  When news of the 9 year old girl (just elected to her school's student council and was there to learn more about the local polical scene) being one of the casualty's was announced, the tears started.


How can we as humans who call ourselves educated, enlightened, democratic - how can we live in a world where violence pervades everyday.  In the toys we buy our children, in our television shows, cartoons, slang.   Is there a time and a place where violence is necessary as a defence for human rights?  Yes.  I will stand by what I have always said, that for every girl, for every child who is now able to go to school in Afghanistan, that is a victory.  Should we strive to enforce western ideals and culture on other countries?  no.  but should every child  be able to learn how to read and write?  yes - in their own native languages, their own history, their own culture.  should women be allowed a place to give birth in a safe sterile place with medical assistance at hand?  yes.

I ramble and am probably not wording that right.  And like religious views, I will not push political ones.  People have the right to believe what they believe.  Live and let live.  In peace.

My cousin Tracey posted this today on facebook - a commentary on the Arizona shooting by Keith Olbermann.  It speaks volumes to me and as I watched it, the tears began again.  I mourn with the people of Arizona.  I mourn for the families of the victims, the injured, the eye witnesses.  I mourn for a society where things like this can happen.  Canada is not excempt from violence and there are days I mourn for my own society.

Commentary on Arizona Shootings

The politicans in this commentary are American and the examples are specific to the US.  But I think his words should speak to all of us.  What he says applies to every person every where. It applies to how we treat each other. It applies to how we raise our children and the example we live and are every day.   Maybe the hidden blessing in this tragic event is that it will increase more positive dialogue on gun control and violence in the United States and elsewhere.  Maybe, even just for a moment, people will put down their hatred of each other and try to get along more peace.  Maybe, even just for a moment.


As for me, it was a 13 hour travel day of missed flights and delays for 4 hours in the air.  It will be another week before I see my own bed and can hold my children.  But knowing they are safe, healthy and that I can continue to try and give the tools to be strong peaceful loving men is a gift.  Today I treasure that gift even more.