After spending only a few short minutes on CBC.ca reading the comment section of coverage of the Toronto Judge ruling that Police were far "too aggressive" during the G20 protest / riot crackdown, I am now utterly sure that I live on a continent filled with aggressively terrified Big-Brother wannabes.

An example: "Given London, given Vancouver, this ruling is entirely unacceptable."

People overwhelmingly (in the CBC.ca's news story comments section) defer to personal safety and comfort before anything else. So much so, that any other idea (ie, freedom sometimes costs, but it's worth it) seems regarded as a violent salvo from a bitter enemy.

I shouldn't be surprised. We live in an era of Tea Party Vs Democrat, Mayor Ford Vs Toronto, Stephen Harper Vs a fair-handed political process, right Vs left, us Vs them.

It's always that. Us vs Them.

When did we get here? Was it when George Bush Jr gave the world permission to not "do nuance"? When did we so willfully throw away our capacity for compromise and understanding?

The Toronto Police probably did over-react during the G20 riots. And I expect an investigation (unlikely to ever happen) would uncover political encouragement for said behaviour. But you know what? There were also a good number of trouble-making douchebags at that protest, mixed with with those using their rights to assemble and be heard.

Wait. What? You mean there might be more than one side to this story. Whoa. Slow down. Are you saying that there are two sides to EVERY story?! Can't be! If I have to consider your side, then where will I find the time to worry that someone from THE OTHER SIDE is going to come and rob me of my family and all my awesome possessions?

Is it that we don't feel safe unless we can identify the enemy? There has to be an enemy. Someone we can keep our eye on. Maybe it's a lower social class. Maybe a minority. Could even be folks of a different vague political leaning. either way, we're good at spotting fabricated enemies. They're everywhere!

It's way past time we accepted that we need to grow up. If we truly believe what we say we stand for, then there will always be risk attached to that.

Now we just need to grow up enough to be able to accept that.

Verb the Noun

Two men approach each other on the sidewalk. One has his face buried in a newspaper and doesn't notice the other right away.

Man 1
"Hey! Noun? Noun, is that you?"

Man 2 (looks up from his paper)
"What? Oh, Noun! How ya verb? Doing adverb?"

Man 1
"Yeah - I'm doing totally adverb! Oh yeah - di you get that noun I verbed?"

Man 2
"Yeah, sorry to hear you won't be able to verb with pronoun tonight."

Man 1
"Yeah, sorry about that - I gota go verb the ole noun, if you know what I mean."

Man 2
"I hear that. My noun has me verbing like crazy. Especially on the weekends."

Man 1
"Wow that must REALLY adjective!"

Man 2
"A bit. The worst part is that now when I verb, I also verb adverb adverb."

Man 1
"Whoa, that's adjective."