“Teen shot dead in lane” –Star April 22nd.

This was yesterday. Today, again, another young black male has been gunned down by a wholly of shots, this time in the Jane/Eglinton area. This black on black shooting epidemic must be cured, one way or another.

What I find most distressing is the fanatical response to being “dissed”. The 19-year-old victim was shouting “don’t disrespect me”, as if not showing respect was worse than death. When all that matter to these young men –when all they hold dear is to be “respected”, or conversely, not “disrespected”, something is seriously missing from their lives and their sense of self. Therein lies the crux of the matter, and presents a focal point for our collective attention to this serious social cancer before it spreads to other areas of society.

Re. INTERVIEW with Roland Fryer. – Maclean’s Dec.15/08.

Excellent article. I think the ideas posited in Hernstein & Murray’s Bell Curve have now been largely disproved, and Matt Ridely’s Nature via Nurture argument makes more sense. It is also more hopeful for the coloured minorities. Obama showed great personal self-confidence and strength in calling himself a “mutt”, though it is incorrectly ascribed to humans (it means mongrel and is usually used in a derogatory way, mainly regarding dogs ). A better word would be mulatto, the proper description of mixed races. But he got our attention!

In the end, we are all part of the human “race”. Mr. Fryer, like Obama’ does not cower behind euphemisms when describing his mixed heritage.

In fact, it might be an advantage. I don’t wish to trivialize this point, but I am a lover of cats and dogs, and I have noticed that the “mutts” far often are smarter and usually stronger than the single breeds. The same could be true for humans.