First of all, there was no effort invovled in tracking them down. A simple checking of IP addresses. Yes it was worth it because if you don't stand up for yourself, people are going to walk all over you. David, posting as T. Cortelli or whoever was cool. Posting as Jess, who is a good friend of ours is NOT. I don't care what you say, Grant almost believed it was actually her and the things your Laurier friends wrote in her name were damaging and wrong. David, I know how much you like to just go with the flow but I disagree that it's what you should be doing all the time. There are people in life who simply deserve to get the shit kicked out of them and I have no problem doing that verbally if I can't do it physically. It may not be worth your time; it's worth mine.

What is it, I wonder, about us as people that makes us so concerned about what others think of us? Is it the fact that we are surrounded by these people and we feel that we need their support? Is it because of some kind of personal inadequacy that we have inside of ourselves? Is it because we like the idea of being popular because we've seen it displayed to us so many times in movies and on television? Whatever the reason, one thing is for certain: 80% or so of what we do is dictated by whether or not it will be accepted by others. We have been taught, as is the Christian tradition, that to value ourselves to highly is some kind of crime, therefore we must humble ourselves constantly. If we find that we have too much liking for ourselves, we start to fit into terms like 'narcissist' or 'selfish' or even 'arrogant'. If people were able to open their eyes just a little bit, they would see how much of a fabricated life they've been living. They would realize that what others think is truly irrelevent, because no matter what, you cannot please everyone, always someone will take offense to something or someone will critisize you for no reason. There is a good story for this: A man and his son in the desert are walking a camel. They come across someone who tells them "Shame on you sir for making your son walk on the sand when he could ride the camel." Wanting to appease them, the man lets his son on the camel. A little later they come across someone else who says "Shame on you boy for making your father walk on the sand." So the boy gets off and they both walk the camel together. They then come across an old man who tells them "Shame on both of you, you could both easily ride the camel together and not walk." So the moral of the story is: No matter what you do, people will arbitrarily critisize you, hence it is best to just do your own thing. If someone told you that you werent wearing the right shoes or that your shirt didnt match your pants would you change that? If someone told you that you were stupide and weak, would you yourself start to beleive it? Would you say "Fuck it" and just do your own thing? How many people can say that they've never heeded social criticism because they were focused enough to do their own thing? Not many I think. In the end, human beings are social animals, and it is for this reason that we depend so much on others.

On another note: Boys...Jon and Grant. I dont think that it was necessary to go through all the effort you went through to try and track these people down. Was it really worth making such a big deal over? No... I apologise for the insults that were posted on your blog, however, the best way you could have handled it would have been to just let it go and go with the flow. You like that little rhyme dont ya.

Ok Joshua, T. Cortelli, Jess, and/or Laurier dude at IP address 216.249.51.211.

I'm sorry, but you'll have to do better than that. Use your head and remember that all Laurier students share nearly the same IP addresses in the same way all Queen's students share nearly the same IP addresses.

David, I am also sorry that you are obliged to live among these people day in and day out.

Take a look at the world today and compare it to the world of 50 or even 40 years ago, now ask yourself...is the world a better place than it was? Lets see now, my dad and my grandpa were having this discussion at dinner once. When they were young, or when my dad was young at least, you didnt have to worry about locking your doors or wondering were your kids were or even distrusting every person who walked past you. That was before we created this whole 'culture of fear' that we now live in. Now we all have to buy alarm systems and we all have to be very cynical and distrustful of the intentions of others. We dont even trust some charities anymore, because we have a beleif that they are corrupt and wont send our money where it really needs to go, and in some cases this is true. Lets use a finer example. In England when my dad was young there was a woman who was raped and murdered and left on the side of the road. Now, we've all heard of this kind of thing happening, but back then it was like 9/11, everybody was just as shocked by it and couldnt beleive that it had happened. Now, lets fast forward a few years or so and lets look at this again. Incidents of rape and murder have apparently become so common that when we hear about them we think...poor people, and then go back to eating our meals. We've become desensitized by the culture we live in. Because North Americans have lost the whole idea of community and kinship that is so common among those little tribes in Africa and other places, we've lost that feeling of empathy that comes with it. Its easier then, for us to do certain things to our fellow humans that would have been unthinkable before. Lets think of it this way: technology is advancing at a rapid pace yes? The next 20 years or so should see such an increase in technological advancement that it would be considered equivalent to the last 50 years, and every year it'll get shorter and shorter. Suppose that we all reach a state where technology is so advanced that we dont even have to work and can devote ourselves entirely to life's pleasurable pursuits. How long before we become bored with trivial aspects of life and turn to the more extreme aspects. How long before the search for new and exotic experiences becomes excessive and extreme? How long before certain codes of ethics are thrown wildly aside in search of self-gratification? How long before the people living in this kind of society can no longer be considered people? Is this the future of the human race? Who knows...maybe its a little too extreme, but anything is possible and it would seem that we are already walking down this road, its just a matter of time. In 100 years, how will things have changed? Who can say...but its very possible that in time the world will either become a paradise, a living hell, or a dust ball completely devoid of all life.

In our hall, we have a poster or series of posters which indicate a number of words which we arent supposed to say under any condition because they are considered to embody descrimination. Words like 'Queer' and 'Wifebeater' are shown among them. What annoys me though is not the idea of the words being descriminatory, but the fact that our Dons (although I can think of only one Don in particular who would do this) would put something like this up there as though we didnt know any better. Holy fuck, we're not fucking three year olds. We know damn well what words we shouldnt say. One of my favorites is ' That exam raped me' and then underneath is a whole paragraph indicating that rape is a very serious crime and that you never know when someone in your vicinity may have been raped, so therefore you shouldnt say such a thing. I can see the reasoning behind all of this, but to be perfectly honest, who gives a flying fuck. In the end it makes no sense to have put something like that up there, first of all because it makes us seem like we're all in junior fucking kindergarden and we're all learning whats right and whats wrong and what words we shouldnt say, man, we know what we shouldnt say. Second, because for those who dont give a damn about what the board says it only provides them with a larger vocabulary of descriminatory words which they can now use at their leisure. Why go through all the effort to try and drum such a thing into our heads. The posters are still there after all this time, and are likely to stay on there for a long time to come. In the end no one really cares, the only reason that people would take the time to read that board is because they find it absurd that they're actually reading that crap. Its such and unnecessary board, while I admire the whole idea of tyring to increase people's awareness of certain things, the way it was done was too shoddy and slapdash. It only makes us all feel like fools, and it only makes us question the reasons why our Don would put that up. Instead of looking on such a thing with respect we only laugh at it as something which is not only ridiculous and and unnecessary waste of good paper, but an insult to our own intelligence and dignity. There are better things to worry about than trying to educate us all about what we should and shouldnt say.