For the love of God

I wanted this blog to be only about happy things.

But sometimes it is important to look at sadness.  Sometimes it is impossible not to.

Some stories, some people, will always be with me. Rehteah Parsons is one of them.  I see her picture, read her story, listen to her mother, and I cry.  Some people would say that it is unhealthy to watch the news and let it affect me to the point of such sadness.  I say that it is my responsibility as a Canadian citizen to let it affect me, to make me think, to cry, to reflect on how I am raising my children, to just give a damn.  

I don't need to explain what happened, the news is doing that over and over.  Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter has appointed four government departments to look into her death, this young woman who was taken off life support following a suicide attempt after she was allegedly bullied for months.  I don't have an answer other than this:  we owe it to Rehtaeh to give a damn enough to question how we are raising our sons and daughters in this digital age.  I have said it before: the internet is a baby and we are only beginning to figure out how to work with it, but figure it out is what we must do.  And we must talk to our daughters about it, and we must talk to our sons and be examples to them about how to treat women.  Period. 

It is impossible to listen to Rehtaeh's dad and not hear your own heart break.  On what must be the darkest time he will ever know, all he asks is this, “My daughter wasn’t bullied to death, she was disappointed to death,” he wrote. “For the love of god do something.”

wishing for change,
hk