"O Canada": This Couldn't Be Happening Here

Last night I watched on my local East Texas sports a view from Vancouver I couldn't believe. I started to cry and this morning am still shedding a tear for my native land. People in  this fine Canadian city, not long ago the host of the world for the 2010 Winter Olympics, were rioting in the streets after the Boston Bruins soundly defeated the Vancouver Canucks to win the Stanley Cup, the symbol of National League Hockey supremacy. In my book, NARC!, the main character, John Doyle, is sitting on the University Hill in 1968 watching and participating in a peaceful protest against the makers of napalm, Dow Chemical. He commisserates about his country, Canada, being a peace loving country and that they don't solve their problems by rioting, but by peaceful means. This was not the case yesterday in Vancouver.

Times have changed. This is the second time that Vancouver has done this over a hockey game.
Now I will admit that hockey in Canada ignites a passion within Canadians much like soccer in South Anerica or Europe. Winning a title is important, especially since it hasn't happened in Canada for a number of years. But it is not the reason to riot. Filling yourself full of Molsons, Labatts or any other popular Canadian drink and destroying vehicles, lighting fires and looting stores does not make you a man or help you forget the loss.

I taught high school in Canada for 10 years and I know that this is not what Canada was all about then.Schools are still in session in most parts of Canada and if I ran the schools I would be using this as a teachable moment, extolling the virtues that the country once held and has obviously forgot. If I ran the Vancouver schools I would be mobilizing the older students to clean up the mess and bring this beautiful Canadian city back to normal. Perhaps there will never be a normal in Vancouver again.