Sad day in history

I was all set to post a cheery message about Christmas and all the getting ready for it, when I realized what today is.
December 6th, 1917: Halifax is devastated by an explosion caused by the collision of the French ship Mont Blanc, a munitions ship carrying a deadly cargo, and the Norwegian ship Imo. The collision occured in the Narrows towards the Bedford Basin. The Mont Blanc caught fire and twenty minutes later she exploded with incredible force, flattening much of our city. Thousands were killed, including school children who had stopped to watch the fire with interest on their way to class.
To learn more, visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. They have an amazing display of artifacts, personal stories and the entire story laid out to learn from. I recommend you see it, and pass on the story to anyone who will listen.

December 6th, 1989: 14 women are gunned down in Montreal's École Polytechnique. They were engineering students, and according to my grade 8 Social Studies teacher (he was in a nearby building in class) apparently the gunman's application for the course had been denied. He blamed the women for taking his place, feeling they were less deserving but they got in based on their gender rather than their competencies (read a case study here) Following this horrific event was a movement against all violence against women. I remember clearly my teacher, normally a fun, jokey man, telling us the tale...breaking the rules by telling us in english instead of the french we were supposed to be immersed in...with tears in his eyes. He told us how afraid he was for friends in that building, for himself, and for those women who were the target of the gunman's rage. We spent the rest of that day making purple ribbons out of construction paper and distributing them amongst our peers.

All in all, not the greatest day in our history. How far have we really come since these dark days? We still have warfare that puts all of us, at home and those sent away, in harm's way. The reasons may be different, but there are still incidences of violence against women. I've been lucky in my life, and I learned well from my role models. I hope that I can teach my son to respect all people, and that I can teach my daughter to be safe from harm and to do no harm. My hope is that my children's future will show the lessons learned from today's history.