June 7

Sunday morning came again. I returned to the garden and finished the painful therapy of weeding that I began last week. My back complained silently as I removed the weeds that infected our garden. If only I could remove the weeds that infect our world.

Thirteen days ago a black American was murdered by a police officer while three others stood by and watched it happen. Americans erupted in protest, riots occurred and America still burns. Canada has had its own movement in reaction and it has spread to Europe as well. In the UK they tore down a statue of a slave trader. The statue was over two hundred years old. It only took moments to destroy. The symbolism is not lost on anyone. Neither is the irony.

We have been forced apart for the past two and a half months and now we have come together in ways we have not seen before. Peaceful protests are rampant, so are those that are inciting riots, looting and theft. Change is coming to America and the world. I hope we can keep it peaceful.

It’s been almost two weeks since this began. People are wearing masks but they are still in close proximity to each other. If ten thousand people can protest in the streets and not get sick then why can’t twenty thousand go to a hockey game, a concert? Or even just a nightclub with live music? They say it’s not the same. We shall see very soon if the pandemic that looked to be on the wane returns with a vengeance.

We had dinner with Krista’s parents this evening and they are very shocked by everything going on. Her Dad is eighty-five and her mother is eighty-six. They have seen many things in their life. Starting with World War Two, the world has changed drastically in the past eighty-some years. I wonder what the next thirty hold for us? I hope for positive changes. I hope society can unite and come together. Watching the news, this seems like a difficult task.

All we can do is take care of each other. I hope that protesting gets the intended results. Not the unintended consequences. In Canada, we have our own systemic racism that needs fixing. Our racism stems around our native population.

The indigenous people have spent four hundred years losing their lives and their culture under the white man’s rule. These protests don’t seem to be about Canada and what has been happening here. They are hijacked by what is happening in the US. Canada needs to stand on its own and work on what we can do to fix our country. I wonder if thousands of people protesting in the streets of Montreal will do anything to fix what ails Canadian society. I wonder if thousands of people protesting in the streets is about to set back everything we have done to defeat our viral foe?

As I watch the news and the world erupt, I hold a fleeting hope. I hope that love and not hate will win out. I hope that we can unite as a people. I hope with fading strength that love can truly conquer all.