What happens when you point your finger at someone?
Hi again,
How was your weekend? Did you go outside? It was really hot here, the sun seemed to beam down on us for the entire 48 hours. Canadians love this kind of weather, we spend miserable long months in the cold, snow-filled darkness waiting for these moments, we cling to them.
If you spent any of that time on social media this past weekend I am sure you must have seen the images, littering the feeds, of young people overcrowding Trinity Bellwoods park. Many were unmasked, and congregating in groups larger than the amount of fingers I have on one hand. Everyone has an opinion on it.
Let me be clear and put my cards on the table before you or anyone else starts to assume how I feel about it. I have asthma, I have not seen any friends let alone family since early March. I agree with public health officials in the idea of social distancing and wearing a mask when you cannot safely social distance. In the grand scheme of things I think regardless of how difficult this time is in isolation, it is important for us to all do our part and come together as a global community to combat this virus.
It’s easy to sit here, in my cement cage and claim self righteousness. I didn’t go to the park, I would never! I can’t believe those people would do that, what’s wrong with them? Don’t they have common sense?
Why do we talk like that now? I understand the pain in seeing those images, but I don’t understand the public shame hurled at the participants, even if they are putting people like me in danger. Why do we assume shame is the appropriate response to force on someone else?
It’s a fool’s game to point fingers, let me remind you these are the same people probably grilling your burgers this summer.
Images taken by Mia Yaguchi-Chow, but captured artwork belongs to Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, curators of Age of You.
Information is not disseminated the same way it used to be; information is tailored, shortened, and disposable. Information seems to change, depending on person. Some of us like The New York Times, others Breitbart; algorithms tailor what we click on so we stay on those sites longer. This is not news to you I know, Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election were four years ago, but don’t be fooled in assuming that this era is over, it’s only ramping up.
What does that have to do with Trinity Bellwoods? Well I say to all the people pointing fingers at those who went to the park I ask can you tell me what information those people were operating with when they made that decision? Were they listening and reading and watching all the same things on this pandemic as you were? What is their motivation to go to the park in the first place? Do you have access to that information?
Common sense is not common. I know that use to be the case, but how can we say that’s the case currently when we often don’t know how our friends feel about something until they share something online that relates to their opinion? There are not just two newspapers in town anymore, there are thousands, hell you’re reading this from a blog.
If you point your finger at those who act differently than you do you’re point three of those fingers back at yourself, remember that. We’re being told to stay at home while we are also told that the economy is opening back up, those are two different ideas, which one do you think the people at the park listened to?
Title Image by Dr. Eileen de Villa from Twitter
