Thursday, September 14, 2006

Youth of the nation, now to the north...

Some months ago, I published an article entitled "Youth of the nation" (click on the title to read it) in which, remembering the 7th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School, I criticized the lack of moral and social values that the modern youth is experiencing because of a partial isolation of their parents, or a lack of interest of the family on its children.
I wouldn't expect that such situation would be solved in a few years. And in fact, it hadn't changed much since 1999, when two armed students entered the mentioned High School and finished with the lives of 15 fellow students (making it one of the most -but not the only one- tragic chapters in the U.S. high schools' history). I would even say that the situation is worse, and its spreading beyond the U.S. borders.
This time, it was in the neighbouring Canada where the disease showed its symptoms. Yesterday, at Dawson College, in Montreal, a 25 year old student wearing black clothes and using a mohawk haircut (which, in my own personal view, bears a lot of resemblance with Travis Bickle, the vile hero-villain in Martin Scorsese's movie Taxi Driver) brought in three guns, with which he shot randomly inside the school. The result: a 18 year old girl dead, and 19 more injured. According to some sources, the gunman, named Kimveer Gill, shot over 20 bullets, and he finally shot himself in the head, dying instantly.
Can this be considered as an isolated event? Is the lack of moral values also affecting Canada?
Those are questions for which an immediate answer cannot be provided. But this kind of massacres should make us to think about the big moral and social value gap that some societies, especially in highly developed (and liberal) countries, are experiencing, and which is taking effect in individuals at very early ages.

Photo by AP

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