Condemnation - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin
At the risk of antagonizing the legal, law-abiding community of gun owners that is known to get a bit prickly if they get misconstrued with the gun violence we know and loathe on the nightly news, do you remember that Seinfeld quote about guns?
Jerry inadvertently gets mixed up in bootleg movies at the behest of a friend of Kramer’s who, when he’s met with resistance from Jerry, brandishes a gun to get his way. When the man returns to a Jerry who doesn’t have what the man wants, Kramer insists that the man will understand, to which Jerry responds, “people with guns don’t understand. That’s why they get guns - too many misunderstandings.”
This whole situation between Jerry and the gun brandisher popped to mind when news stories said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “condemned” the Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza. Just like the gun brandisher was unlikely to understand Jerry’s reluctance to get involved in all of this illegality, I thought that those engaged in full-scale war, killing aid workers, women, children and, of course, men (not singling out a side here, just to be clear - it appears both sides are doing plenty of killing) would file a condemnation in a relatively low-priority compartment of their consciences.
If you’re Trudeau, or any other world leader for that matter, you have to condemn the strike that took the lives of seven people simply trying to feed those in a war-torn part of the world (again, those on both sides), but the act of condemnation just seems so impotent.
I remember pitching this as an editorial topic just a few weeks ago. It was a scene from the House of Commons and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, amid calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, stated, unequivocally, that “the violence must end”. To bastardize something an old boss used to use when he would tell me an interesting fact from his past or a story about a famous person he used to know (he worked sometimes as a trainer for some NHL old-timers), Mélanie, that advice for peace in the Middle East and a buck fifty will get you a coffee at Tim Horton’s.
In that editorial board meeting setting, I was going to pitch Joly’s reaction as the ineffective opinion many of us have. For many who have not come down hard on one side or the other - those of us in the bloated, crowded grey area of the middle - we just hope the violence ends. It’s kind of like the t-shirt for non-sports-fans at sporting events declaring loudly and proudly that you just hope both teams have fun.
As the situation continues to deteriorate in that area - the planned Israeli ban on Al Jazeera sending out news to the world from that region is particularly concerning, and has been treated appropriately by the international community - it’s hard to know what the way forward is, but I think it’s safe to say that we can leave our stupid condemnations in our pocket.
For me it just brought to light the futility of it all. Trudeau has to do it, of course, as he can’t be seen to be supporting any of this, and yet, at the same time, a condemnation in a press conference here in Canada means what, exactly? It reminds me of the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Daily, Trudeau would Tweet about how much he disapproved of what was happening there. I remember thinking, “that’ll do the trick you brute, you.”
As we know from the wisdom of Jerry Seinfeld, people with guns don’t understand and that’s why they get guns. When words cease to do the trick, it’s gun-toting time. And, increasingly, around the world, we’re seeing more and more people going that way.