Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 19, 1996, Winnipeg, Manitoba Brian Cole 6977044 focus Winnipeg free press March 1996 europeans cannot hide behind Safe history Slaughter knows no Borders by Hugo Young Newsweek i f it had happened in who in Europe would have blinked there was a time when it never seemed to happen anywhere this was a false but the mythology of America and the Slaughter that goes on there is imprinted on the european for the first few postwar decades at there stood behind americas manifold blessings to the world that other More polluted Eden the Freak the Home of the place where it was almost Normal for berserk gunmen to Spray the classroom or the weirdness is still the favored image of Small town America peddled by the British tabloid even if youve never heard of Quentin you know that if 16 children and their teacher Are going to be Massa cred it will surely be in the land where 260 million citizens own 260 million in their passion for europeans Are still in the weight of Houston and new York City exhibit quite differ ent norms from Frankfurt or let alone a decorous country town like where burglary is a rarity and murder of violence rooted in the fabric of everyday life whether or or simple score settling on the streets the United states experiences More than any other society in the devel oped when in in the United i live in in a place so Small it could hardly be called a Tranquillity even where poverty is but one is not Blind to the narcotic disorders and the rituals of fear that Are More or less the condition of life in the the Comfort a Berliner or londoner might draw from these comparisons no longer the Dun Blane catastrophe has no precedent in nor in the helpless poignancy of its but it illuminates the fact that there is no longer any Refuge to be if there Ever really in believing America to be although social norms do not exactly and gun Laws derive from a different the psychic terrain of the solitary knows no the pathology of an affect less world is an International with ele ments bearing upon it that Are the uni Versal accompaniment of what we presume to Call advanced at the leading Edge of in the most technically sophisticated societies Man has Ever been Able to the seeds of a terrible doom also seem to be within 48 we knew almost All there was to know about Thomas Hamil this want like the Oklahoma bomb in which not Only were the culprits somewhat hard to find but their alignment is still something of a Hamilton was a Man nursing a perversion and distanced from he turned out to be the Scourge of local a grudge merchant who was nevertheless allowed a licence to carry but he was a and the fevered presenter of a world in which he could find no he was thus a slightly crazed version of the social category that now menaces advanced societies More than any other the single male who has no these Arent All mass of but unskilled and humiliated by Sisters who get the part time jobs that Are the Only ones on offer these lacking any kind of social they find that the Only identity available is beyond the mourners attend funeral of victims Joanna Ross and Emma Crozier the Brilliant film la chronicling 24 hours of Street life in a soulless French depicts a world where Thomas a petulant would have been swallowed up and left for car the films Power came from its prophetic banishing any last illusion of Europe As the 21st Century Haven from the politicians response is to look for solutions from the Only repertoire he the array of Little statutes and Small admonishments that lies under his these Arent just a Way of pretending to impose some kind of order on the limit less moral chaos in Days like seems to Lurk so close to the obviously it makes sense to try to Stop guns getting into the hands of people whose mental state tempts them to shoot at any just As necessary is the better Protection of and nearly every other Mas gathering i would add the Case for far larger resources to be devoted to the study and care of mental for if there is one condition common to these events wherever they it is the tragic unfitness for the modern world that the perpetrators but lies the most painful reaching far beyond the legislators maybe these Are sicknesses for which there is no the studies into the degeneration of the collapse of com the growth of the exaltation of acquisitive individualism and the How violence legitimizes through television and other images available 24 hours a is another hypothesis that will repay More serious study than a Liberal age is prepared to onanism in lived out in a fantasy world ruled by terror and thrilled by incessant poses a lethal combi Media vastly enriched by promoting these deny that any part of society degradation can be blamed upon they demands yet i hesitantly exposes the awesome possibility that is the hardest to face whom the gods Advance to full they then make As our societies apparently they leave Ever More people creating conditions with which they cannot Cope while drastically reducing care for the mentally which is All that stands Between these trends and social in that Prospect All Are from Dunblane to Hugo Young is a political columnist for the guardian in u of w offers personal touch letters to the editor As a student attending the University of i feel i must object and respond to Walter cast ones recent letter to the free press March 9 questioning the Validity of the u of w in today economic i moved to this turning Down several offers to prestigious Canadian specifically to attend the u of Why i was attracted to what the u of w offers undergraduates that bigger uni such As the u of do not personalized attention in Post secondary the u of w is blessed with wonderful faculty who Are available to students and Are personable All of my professors know me by Small classes and accessibility to research that at most schools would Only be available to graduate the u of w is big enough to offer but Small enough to Foster a Community and allow for participation in All aspects of University our degree requirements also have Stu dents taking courses from a wide variety of encouraging a Well rounded All of these things have done nothing but enrich my academic career and further my own personal knowl Andrea Breau Winnipeg How to reach us the free press welcomes letters from letters must be signed and should include a clearly printed address and Telephone names will be published but not All letters May be edited for style and Short letters Are less Likely to be please address letters to letters to the Winnipeg free 1355 Mountain Winnipeg r2x letters can be sent to our fax number letters May be submitted through the internet at letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone keep Home care in Public hands so health minister Jim Mccrae profit is not a four letter in the Case of the privatization of Home it definitely some essential services should remain in control of the govern this change affects workers jobs where lower wages will be in a service where the wages Are so Low to begin it also affects the continuity of care older and disabled people profit is a four let Ter word at Margaret Harding Winnipeg Faith Page offers variety thank you for the refreshing addition of John stack houses column and the new offerings column on your Faith Johns column ave me Access to information i have had it was quite interesting to me As a teacher and i look for Ward to his since i am involved in a Promise seekers it of Nice to read what Doug Tiffen had to often i have Felt quite unrepresented on the Faith Page it was Nice to feel that this Issue of the free press was for too thanks again Doug Hallstead Winnipeg Job creation not role of Mcc the people of Manitoba have to question the latest move by the province regarding welfare our politicians Are so detached from at Street jobs disappear by the tens of As a last Many of these people will end up on it must be absolute desperation forc ing the politicians to dump Job creation problems into the hands of a disaster and third world Relief i dont think it is the role of the mennonite Church or its Agency or any other denomination for that matter to solve and employment problems besetting our As a civilized it is up to the state to ensure its Ordinary citizens Are that their daily bread and Means of livelihood Are pro Church run food Banks have permanent fixtures will Winnipeg hardest volunteers prepare food packages at the food which has become a permanent fixture in Church run employment agencies become the Norm let us move to a More democratic and caring Sci not a theocratic Alexander Parkinson Winnipeg a tidal wave of spending anyone interested in seeing How their tax dollars Are really spent should drop in at any provincial department or provincially fund de institution at the end of As the government approaches the end of the budget every department and institution scram Bles to spend every Penny left in their if they they lose the surplus and May see their funding reduced for the next Fis Cal having held positions in both the province and City govern i can testify to the tidal wave of new office equipment and supplies that pour in at this time of the irony is that thanks to the wizardry of government this Cash cannot be transferred to the operating budgets of the As it is considered this Means that there is plenty of Money to buy new desks for the and a new computer for every but absolutely none to pay the employees of the govern As a the bran new equipment will sit Idle As the employees Are Laid off to pay for the deficit in the operating or Are forced to accept wage Roll backs to accommodate the governments program of fiscal the final irony is that when government calculates its yearly it includes the Capi Tal and the Cost of borrowing but when cutting Back it is the operating budget employee salaries which must account for the its time we confronted Premier Gary Filmon and mayor Susan Thompson on these ridiculous accounting practices and the Annu Al March spending Ian Vanmierlo Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau some Butch Kobry that your Why Job n0aau star5 disc ;