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My morning ritual includes catching the major news headlines on CBC while sipping on morning tea, or gulping down a can of slim-fast my wife thinks is going to help me lose 40 lbs. Oh, right, this is Canada. I meant 18 kg. Sorry. Anyway, if the news doesn't depress me to the point of scurrying off back to bed and pulling the covers over my head till all of the bad things go away, I'll eventually amble off here to my computer and attempt something resembling productivity. Other times, I'll come in here and work on a column, which many of you may think resembles nothing productive at all. This, is one of those days. Again, my apologies.
The news today had me thinking about how much of it is created all because humans do really stupid things. One of the headlines was about that massive gas explosion in San Francisco that took out something in the neighbourhood of 53 homes. Actually, I guess that would be about equal to an entire neighbourhood. The scene was one of shocking pictures one person described as Judgment Day. How would anyone know what that's supposed to look like, I wondered to myself. There are some images you should just resist letting into your head, and my guess is that your own personal judgment day is one of them.
As terrible as the picture of dozens of homes engulfed in flames in a major city was, I couldn't help but ask myself why anyone would be surprised by the event. First, we cram more humans into a small space called a city than was ever meant to exist in the first place, then supply them with a highly combustible energy source like natural gas through a network of pipes and connections likely supplied and installed underground by the lowest bidder that, surprise surprise, develops a leak and blows everything up within a two mile radius in an area with a well-known documented history of literal shaky ground in the form of earthquakes. Whoops, sorry; I meant 3.3 km. My bad. The surprise ought to be that it doesn't happen everyday somewhere, but more often in San Francisco.
Speaking, er, writing of Judgment Day brings up the other major news item of that day, which was the Florida preacher who very publicly proposed a burning of 200 copies of the Islamic Holy book on September 11, as a gesture of rejection of all things Islamic. For some people, an ideologic war over religion that has been conducted on and off for a couple of centuries and that also occasionally includes a skirmish or two over oil or other commodities and has never solved anything isn't enough of a representation of just how idiotic we can be.
One zealot or another can always be counted on to add their own brand of fuel to a fire that has consumed humans since the beginning of time. My immediate thought on this guy was we collect him and offer him up to the terrorists in some type of hostage exchange. You give us back three innocent hikers you're holding as spies, and we'll give you crazy guy whose solution to our differences is to make you angrier with us than you already are. I know, I know, that's not very Christian-like. It's likely not very Islamic-like either, but sometimes you just have to step outside that box we're all in.
There were other news images that caught my attention. Donald Trump has offered to buy out the major shareholders who plan to build the mosque at ground zero. Some say it's a publicity stunt, but I doubt that seriously. No one with a hair style like his would want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves, would they? You wouldn't let your spouse leave the house with their zipper down, or food between their teeth, or needing to blow their nose. Yet someone close to Donald lets him go outside everyday without letting him know his choice of hairstyle makes him look downright silly. Clearly, no one loves him enough to tell him that really simple thing.
Can there possibly be any sadder news than that? If you want me, I'll be in bed.
