Vancouver Riot: Purposeless? Valueless? Godless?
Dear friends:
A few weeks ago there was a published article about the religion of the Stanley Cup. It talks about how people have identified themselves with the precious trophy. Many sports enthusiasts have talked about the difference between the Stanley Cup and any other championship hardware in North America. It is the only prized trophy that bears the name “The Lord”…”The Lord Stanley” that is.
So what happened the night the Vancouver Canucks lost the 7th game and failed to win the most envious trophy deserves some serious reflection. Watching the riots and the most destructive event in the recent history of Vancouver brought a vast array of emotion: anger, sorrow, confusion, sadness, bewilderment and more. Trying to understand what happened is harder than trying to determine whether these people who were willfully damaging and stealing others’ property have any heart at all. The absence of the heart might be just the reality of the loss of the human soul.
a) A reason to be angry? What caused such anger to be displayed in the most awful way? Are we that superficial to allow the loss of a hockey game to rob away our common sense? As a shop owner said the day after the riot while cleaning up the mess in front of her shop that there are plenty of other reasons to be angry about. She was right. Can it be true that we have become a creature that lives life without any ability to reflect and to ponder? There are many other causes around the world that are worthy of our attention and cry out for justice. The rioters do not have to go far from where they were to East Hastings in order to discover the many losses among humanity that needs a cry for attention.
b) Get a life! I guess it is not nice to say to someone “to get a life”. However, watching these young men and women who showed total disregard for what is right and what is beautiful gave me the impression that they are lost in their own human existence. For me to get a life is to have a proper appreciation for life and what it needs to grow and to flourish. The actions of these non-reflective people basically portray a metaphor of death. The kind of death that presents itself in the form of unguided anger, self-enticed emotion and a lavish expression of emptiness. I saw nothing that was meaningful except a whole bunch of walking dead who have nothing to do other than worshipping its own death.
c) Having pride about the right thing: watching a young man pumping his chest on top of a burning vehicle tells me that people’s understanding of pride can be so corrupted. That very behavior has brought a new name to a beautiful city: “Vancouver, a Sore Loser”. The flames that were set on fire by these unruly folks are the flames of shame, the kind of shame that cannot be self-contained; it has be displayed in public so that it can bring shame upon others. People, who have any common sense at all, started feeling an overwhelming feeling of shame about what was happening in front of them.
d) Courage in the midst of destruction: not all people who were there participated in the destruction. I was encouraged by the images of courageous men and women who tried to reason with those whose intention was to do harm to others and the property around them. Their courage was a stark contrast to the vast number of people who simply stood there and used their digital cameras to record the whole riot. Somehow they treated the whole thing as a spectator sport. Not too many came to the aid of those who tried to prevent the madness from going further.
e) The danger of denial: the Mayor, the BC premier and many sports and business leaders came forward and proclaimed that what we saw was not a true reflection of Vancouver. That might be true to some degree but we should not be too quick to conclude that it was just the work of anarchists and troublemakers. The recorded images of last Wed night tell us that the men and women who participated in the riot might come from all walks of life and all segments of society. Maybe the denial of God and the purpose that God has intended for human life has lead us to the place where we have granted ourselves the freedom and the right to deny our broken and wicked conditions.
Many people have told me that they feel ashamed of being Canadians because of what happened last Wednesday after the Stanley Cup final in Vancouver. Shame is a powerful thing and Jesus was aware of that. In short, many Biblical scholars used the term “Our Shame Bearer” to describe Jesus. When a society refuses that offer systematically, shame will express its destruction in many shapes and forms. What Vancouver experienced last week can be one of those expressions. It might not be a bad time to start to go after the “The Lord of All”, not just “The Lord Stanley Cup”.
“I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.” (Isaiah 50:6).
Blessings and Peace,
© Dat Nguyen – June 2011
In April 2007 Ed Huculak was appointed to the position of General Manager/Director of Sales for the Calgary Sun. A graduate of the University of Manitoba, Mr. Huculak worked initially for Xerox before spending 10 years at the Winnipeg Sun as an executive in national and retail advertising. He was Director of Advertising at the Calgary Sun from 1996 until becoming Publisher and CEO of the Winnipeg Sun in 2003. He is an active member of the community, involved in charitable and business-related causes. Ed was in a TEC group in Calgary for four years.
