Hey, Remember When THIS Awful Thing Happened?
Twenty years ago today, a whackjob in Montreal killed 14 women at L'Ecole Polytechnique. He specifically targeted female engineers, feeling that they were responsible for ruining his life. He killed himself at the end of the affair.
Every year, we drag this out in our local media, ostensibly so that "it will never be forgotten". Indeed, the headline of today's paper was "14 Who Will Never Be Forgotten"... and just like every year, the article utterly fails to mention any of the slain women's names. Every article always tells me the killer's name, and shows me a picture of his face. The articles seem to be intent on making sure I don't forget the bad guy; the victims were incidental to the story in that they were what made the bad guy bad.
I'm awfully tired of having "the Montreal Massacre" dragged out year after year. I don't think it's bad thing to forget some things. If we're not doing it to honour the dead (and clearly we're not), or to study what advances we've made in Potential Psychopath Detection since then (and the articles never touch on this -- they only rehash The Horrific Events Of That Day), then let it go. The only reason it's ever brought up now is as a paper-selling piece.
As a last note and I acknowledge that some of you will disagree, and perhaps be annoyed with me for this, but I'm hoping not offended I'm always a little dismayed at the way this thing is held up as an example of violence against women. To me, it's not. It's an example of a whackjob who selected a target group, and then killed some of them. If he had felt his life had been ruined by Jews, or people wearing sock-monkey caps, he would have shot Jews or people wearing sock-monkey caps. I found it dismaying that there were "women only" vigils for the dead that I was never allowed to go because I like the murderer have a penis.
Every year, we drag this out in our local media, ostensibly so that "it will never be forgotten". Indeed, the headline of today's paper was "14 Who Will Never Be Forgotten"... and just like every year, the article utterly fails to mention any of the slain women's names. Every article always tells me the killer's name, and shows me a picture of his face. The articles seem to be intent on making sure I don't forget the bad guy; the victims were incidental to the story in that they were what made the bad guy bad.
I'm awfully tired of having "the Montreal Massacre" dragged out year after year. I don't think it's bad thing to forget some things. If we're not doing it to honour the dead (and clearly we're not), or to study what advances we've made in Potential Psychopath Detection since then (and the articles never touch on this -- they only rehash The Horrific Events Of That Day), then let it go. The only reason it's ever brought up now is as a paper-selling piece.
As a last note and I acknowledge that some of you will disagree, and perhaps be annoyed with me for this, but I'm hoping not offended I'm always a little dismayed at the way this thing is held up as an example of violence against women. To me, it's not. It's an example of a whackjob who selected a target group, and then killed some of them. If he had felt his life had been ruined by Jews, or people wearing sock-monkey caps, he would have shot Jews or people wearing sock-monkey caps. I found it dismaying that there were "women only" vigils for the dead that I was never allowed to go because I like the murderer have a penis.