West Coast Shame

I was going to write about my day at the dentist, which always begins quietly but quickly grows to epic proportions. Just as I sat down to write, Louise called me to come and watch the breaking news from Vancouver.

If you don’t follow hockey, tonight was the Stanley Cup final between Vancouver and Boston. The Bruins won the game. I was sort of cheering for Boston, but when it became too one sided I changed my affiliation. What can I say, I am a fickle son of a gun. I also have very strong ankles from jumping on and off of the band wagon. That is a curious expression, band wagon; was there actually a band that played on a wagon and were people allowed to jump on and off? Why is that a bad thing? I think we will need to go into this at a later date.

So tonight the Vancouver Canucks lost their bid to win the Stanley cup and the fans are naturally very disappointed. Vancouver has never won the cup in its 41 year history with the NHL, so we can all understand the disappointment. It has been 39 years since Boston held the cup so they were just as deserving of a win. They are the two best teams in the NHL this year which I think should be enough for any fan.

I just witnessed riots in downtown Vancouver! This is something I just can’t understand. Perhaps I just don’t feel that strongly about anything, well, except for chocolate and ice cream. Oh, and Louise, the kids and the grandkids. There were broken windows in a bank, I don’t like banks either, but if the rioters think they are making a statement to the banks well, they are just wrong. Why in God’s name would they turn over the outdoor toilets? Maybe at the beginning of the night, but at the end of the evening it's a really shitty idea, no matter how pissed off you are. Heh, heh. Why burn cars? How does that make any sense at all. Maybe if they were from Boston, belonged to Bettman or perhaps were full of clowns. I saw these young people kicking the side of an overturned car. Did they think the car was going to cry out in pain? I have kicked the side of a car before and it really hurts! It involved an ice storm, frozen locks, two broken handles and an increasingly short temper.

These thugs that are the instigators of the riot are just sad little people that have nothing of value in their lives and see an opportunity to drag us down to their level. On our worst day we couldn’t reach that level. You know, there are things in this country that are worth taking action about. Kids and the elderly starving and not getting proper medical care, the rape of our environment for profit, graft and corruption at all levels of government and of course Dances With the Stars.

I guess what bugs me is the fact that you and I are the ones that have to pay for this behaviour. The banks will just tack on a little more interest on our mortgages to pay for the broken windows and the insurance companies will just raise the rates that they charge. We pay for the police, fire, ambulance and city cleanup crews with our taxes, all because some drunken idiot had another bag added to the pile of garbage that their life is. Boo-hoo!

The players themselves don’t care as much as the fans. Oh, they would have loved to win, but it is just a job after all. These were the guys hugging each other after the game and giving congratulations on a well played game. I imagine they are having a late supper and perhaps a drink or two in either celebration or lamenting things that might have been. Tomorrow is another day and next year is full of opportunities…