40% Furious, 50% Sad, 10% hopeless
A recent trip to Toronto provided a sobering reminder who I am, and what my station in life is.
Before my party's destination (a fantastic book sale at UofT) , we took a bit of a sightseeing tour through Forest Hill, Toronto's mega-wealthy district which is full to the brim of Israel zionism. When I was a child, it was a bit of a fun time to drive around Midland/Penetanguishene to see the "nice houses". My mother, grandmother, sister and I would marvel and daydream at the life we would never have. This day's trip would have once been seen through this filter, but I no longer see them as "nice houses". These are terrible, frightening houses which conceal horrors too obscene for me (this, coming from a guy who jokes about abortions and jesus). We've all come to know how some movie star will take an accidental tour of some poverty-stricken region and feel rife with shock, and act to do their best to stop it....well I got news for you: It works the other way too. My working class background/education at a working class school (largely) has made me notice certain horrors that have been hidden from view (from me). "Nice" housing no longer has any appeal to me, as it took a 4 minute drive away to see what the fruitition of these ruling class denizens. Israel zionism runs rampant through this region, as the common motifs were gated communities, immigrant nannies, BMWs, houses for single families which can easily house 15 families, and the most disturbing: lawn signs and billboards exclaiming various Israeli pride/defiance slogans (such as "What will YOU do for Israel Today?", "Our Israel Today, Your Israel Tommorow", and "What does Israel Mean to You?").
Is any one else frightened by this as much as I am? How can we, with the 2nd world war still in living memory sit idly by while this neo-fascism parades so brazenly and unopposed in our financial/cultural hub? It's not the Jewish part I have an issue with, its the Israel part. Israel, for all the good things it brings to the region (democracy....sort of), Israel is a terrorist state. But we gladly look the other way (or is it turn the other cheek?) because they're commiting acts of terrorism against the other side....a.k.a. the brown people. These people are not the fringe of Toronto society, they are the centre. This is a region which sees regular patronage by zionists like Heather Reisman, Gerry Shwartz and Harry Abrams, all cultural/financial/media/political heavy-hitters. Why aren't people scared shitless at this sort of thing? Can you imagine, if in your own town's major streets you saw billboards atop major commercial chains like GAP or Starbucks...billboards declaring "Sunni Future" or "Saudi Arabia Today, Peace Tommorow"? Your town would be tearing down those billboards faster then they could bomb an aborion clinic (see? abortion jokes). Why then, do we look the other way when it comes to the Israel lobbyists? I'll say it plainly as can be: THIS IS FASCISM! Pure and simple.
Lets re-cap what has happened to me in the previous weeks: Due to my need to focus on my studies in 4th year, horrible disagreements between my conscious and Chapters, and a rate of pay that can best be described as indentured servitude, I quit my job in disgust. My shitty, ancient car broke down yet again because I can't afford to maintain it. Ontario voted down its only genuine chance to institute positive change in our antiquated electoral system, and also voted to maintain the status quo, (despite the awful track record of the Liberal adminstration). I visited Toronto and saw some of the most surprising and horrifying examples of fascism and ethnic militantism in my own backyard, and no one saying "boo".
Why do I even bother getting an education? Once I get this degree, it seems like nothing will change for my station in life. I will always be poor, controlled, silenced, and ridiculed by those who claim that I overreact, or don't understand. Maybe there is such a brain-drain problem in this country and province because the powers that be do not value higher education as much as they value higher finance.
I hate this province, and I'm going to fight back the only way that I can actually have an impact: by fucking off as soon as I can, and never contribute further to this province that has treated me and my family with so much contempt.
Fuck you, Ontario.