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just a thought...
17 years ago
i was reading ink's journal, (I'm sorry if you do not still go by that name or if you prefer 'doctor now.) and it made me think of my own views on the constructs of good and evil and what effects have been wrought on me to change my perception of such labels.... we all know the generalization. murderers, rapists, child molesters etc. are all evil, police officers, hard working citizens etc are all good.... but what if that entire idea was turned upside down?
when i was twelve or thirteen i spent an entire summer with a boy and his sister. it was a sort of retreat with my mother. she works as a care aid in a home for the mentally ill, mostly schizophrenics. jessie and jessica where the adopted children of another nurse that had went along on this retreat to dispense medication to the patients. it was on denmen island off the coast of vancouver island. it was nice and i spent every day with the pair as they were the only other children there. jessica was younger than us but she still kept up rather well.
after that summer i saw them on occasion at the random staff party or in passing. i spoke to jessie regularly through email, until one day they just seemed to drop off the face of the earth. when i asked my mother, she said they had been taken back by their biological mother, who had cleaned herself up...
several years later when i was in grade nine, my mother was watching the news and started to scream. my dad and i wandered in to find them reporting on the david trott case.... for those of you who are unaware of this i will explain. david trott was a man staying with friends, one day he offered to drive their son and daughter to their respective places. the son had hockey practice and needed to go to the ice rink, and the daughter still had school at the time as she was still in elementary. he dropped the son off and then disappeared with the girl. she was later found in a trailer that david trott had attempted to burn down. he had raped her and then strangled her with either an extension cord or electrical cord. i can not remember which, and don't tend to read the details available. i mention this for obvious reasons for this discussion, the girl was jessica russell, the one i had known.
after going through this i became aware and finally took a stance on the corrections system. i became for the death penalty, and all those other things. canada's stance on people is that they can change. i didn't believe this possible.
when i was in elementary school myself. i had a best friend named emily who lived in the trailer park with me. i would go to her house and we would play until my dad came to get me because he didn't want me walking home in the dark. our families became friends. my sisters friends and sometimes girlfriends of her older brothers, our parents knowing each other well enough to have over for dinner, or speak to when they met in the super market. her family was nice, they were old hippies, smoked a lot of pot but where generally harmless and loved one another. i remember her father as this tall skinny man with a soft voice and a big gray beard. he had her eyes and he was the sort of dad any might be with their baby, slightly over weight, only daughter. he called her emma for short, and emma bemma to annoy her into pouting.
after i graduated high school there was a scandal that ran through the local papers that some one had finally been arrested for the murder of a girl i had never heard of in the sixties or something. she was a highschool student from garibaldi, the same highschool my sisters had gone to, and could even remember passing a tree planted in her honor. the name of the man they had arrested was not released until after he was found guilty. supposedly the story goes that there was a group of men, highschool students i think that ran after this girl and chased her into a field where they proceeded to gang rape her and eventually beat her to death.
my sister jaime was the one that told me one of the men had been emily's father. he was the only one they could find evidence towards in later years, and he would not name who was with him in committing the crime. the strangest part of the story is that the girl that had been killed was named emma, what he had always called his daughter. he later said that it was because he was sorry for what had happened to the girl, and named his child that in her honor. people mocked him for this.
when i learned of this i was of course shocked, but i came to realize something. this had been a man i had known my entire life. he had been kind to me and my family, and never got angry at anyone. he was well liked in our park and where he worked as a sort of gentle giant. i realize now that most of that persona was probably created out of regret. he confessed to what he had done, yet never told them another man's name.
this brought forth the question of good and evil yet again. was this man evil for killing a girl i had never heard of beyond a plaque on a tree, or was he good for being a loving father to three children, and being kind to those around him for the rest of his free days?
i realize my experiences in the matter are a tad extreme, but they are my own and i have come to see not all people will change, but some will. good and evil are just things said to split the masses into agreement or disagreement that is why they are used so much in political elections. this man is evil, that man is good.... none of it really matters. we all have things we hide, and good and evil are just words.
when i was twelve or thirteen i spent an entire summer with a boy and his sister. it was a sort of retreat with my mother. she works as a care aid in a home for the mentally ill, mostly schizophrenics. jessie and jessica where the adopted children of another nurse that had went along on this retreat to dispense medication to the patients. it was on denmen island off the coast of vancouver island. it was nice and i spent every day with the pair as they were the only other children there. jessica was younger than us but she still kept up rather well.
after that summer i saw them on occasion at the random staff party or in passing. i spoke to jessie regularly through email, until one day they just seemed to drop off the face of the earth. when i asked my mother, she said they had been taken back by their biological mother, who had cleaned herself up...
several years later when i was in grade nine, my mother was watching the news and started to scream. my dad and i wandered in to find them reporting on the david trott case.... for those of you who are unaware of this i will explain. david trott was a man staying with friends, one day he offered to drive their son and daughter to their respective places. the son had hockey practice and needed to go to the ice rink, and the daughter still had school at the time as she was still in elementary. he dropped the son off and then disappeared with the girl. she was later found in a trailer that david trott had attempted to burn down. he had raped her and then strangled her with either an extension cord or electrical cord. i can not remember which, and don't tend to read the details available. i mention this for obvious reasons for this discussion, the girl was jessica russell, the one i had known.
after going through this i became aware and finally took a stance on the corrections system. i became for the death penalty, and all those other things. canada's stance on people is that they can change. i didn't believe this possible.
when i was in elementary school myself. i had a best friend named emily who lived in the trailer park with me. i would go to her house and we would play until my dad came to get me because he didn't want me walking home in the dark. our families became friends. my sisters friends and sometimes girlfriends of her older brothers, our parents knowing each other well enough to have over for dinner, or speak to when they met in the super market. her family was nice, they were old hippies, smoked a lot of pot but where generally harmless and loved one another. i remember her father as this tall skinny man with a soft voice and a big gray beard. he had her eyes and he was the sort of dad any might be with their baby, slightly over weight, only daughter. he called her emma for short, and emma bemma to annoy her into pouting.
after i graduated high school there was a scandal that ran through the local papers that some one had finally been arrested for the murder of a girl i had never heard of in the sixties or something. she was a highschool student from garibaldi, the same highschool my sisters had gone to, and could even remember passing a tree planted in her honor. the name of the man they had arrested was not released until after he was found guilty. supposedly the story goes that there was a group of men, highschool students i think that ran after this girl and chased her into a field where they proceeded to gang rape her and eventually beat her to death.
my sister jaime was the one that told me one of the men had been emily's father. he was the only one they could find evidence towards in later years, and he would not name who was with him in committing the crime. the strangest part of the story is that the girl that had been killed was named emma, what he had always called his daughter. he later said that it was because he was sorry for what had happened to the girl, and named his child that in her honor. people mocked him for this.
when i learned of this i was of course shocked, but i came to realize something. this had been a man i had known my entire life. he had been kind to me and my family, and never got angry at anyone. he was well liked in our park and where he worked as a sort of gentle giant. i realize now that most of that persona was probably created out of regret. he confessed to what he had done, yet never told them another man's name.
this brought forth the question of good and evil yet again. was this man evil for killing a girl i had never heard of beyond a plaque on a tree, or was he good for being a loving father to three children, and being kind to those around him for the rest of his free days?
i realize my experiences in the matter are a tad extreme, but they are my own and i have come to see not all people will change, but some will. good and evil are just things said to split the masses into agreement or disagreement that is why they are used so much in political elections. this man is evil, that man is good.... none of it really matters. we all have things we hide, and good and evil are just words.
