On the morning of Thursday, January 8, I held a vigil in Snug Cove in honour of the people killed in the Wednesday attacks in Paris. It was just me on that very cold morning, and my little sign, “not afraid.”
In Paris on Wednesday night, people held up beautiful lighted panels that spelled out the phrase “not afraid.” At the Vancouver vigil, there were smaller signs saying the same thing. I have always felt this way about terrorism and its perpetrators, and I wanted to make the same statement at my vigil.
Terrorists want us be terrorized, thus their name. I feel that we must not be. By refusing to be, we strip the perpetrators of their power. Don’t even use the word. Call them what they are. Use the word, ”murderers” instead.
Why do some young men take this destructive path? The two brothers in Paris had been abandoned as children and lived in poverty. Poverty in itself is dreadful, but a more dire result is the disengagement of the poor from society. An us/them, class-war mentality arises, quaint as that idea seems to us egalitarian Canadians. France, one of the richest countries in world, has not done the best job of integrating immigrants into its society and must do better to give hope and better opportunities to all its citizens.
Bowen Island is surely one of the most privileged places on the planet. Our immense good fortune behooves us to look beyond our gentle shores to the world at large. We have a responsibility to the greater good. If you feel moved to do something, here are some suggestions.
To help stop home-grown radicalization, take action to help local impoverished immigrant families in the Lower Mainland. Check out the Mom 2 Mom Child Poverty Initiative (m2mcharity.ca) and the Vancouver Sun Adopt-a-School program (vansunkidsfund.ca). You can donate and/or volunteer to help vulnerable kids get a good education and basic resources and feel that someone cares.
Refuse to be afraid. Do not utter the “t-----“ word. Don’t let politicians stoke your fear. Contact our MP (John Weston) and MLA ( Jordan Sturdy) to instead request better government funding for social services and mental health programs. Tell the media to stop their incessant coverage of brutal groups and relentless replays of men about to be beheaded and psychopaths shooting off weapons and ranting about their violent ideology.
Remember that we live in a world far better than ever in the history of humanity, and that even the radicalized will eventually become modernized. Read “The Better Angels of our Nature” by Stephen Pinker for the good news. In the meantime, be not afraid.
