12 days later.

It was no doubt near to impossible to be living in the GVRD for the past month without hearing about, or getting involved with, the NHL Playoffs.  For about 2 months, many of us revelled in the fact that our Canucks were on a playoff run that could very realistically lead to a Stanley Cup.  This, of course, is not what ended up happening, and following the loss of game 7 against the Boston Bruins, Vancouver took another gigantic hit in what has been dubbed by many news stations as the "2011 Stanley Cup Riot". 

Watching Game 5 (a glorious win) at Hamilton and Georgia

I realize I'm a little late on putting my thoughts about this event out in writing, and to be honest its because I'm still not sure where I stand with it.  Needless to say, that Wednesday night, watching the breaking news coverage of the city I love so much being completely terrorized, my heart broke a little bit.  The following morning, watching more news coverage, youtube videos and the like, I found myself literally grieving, crying over the extreme loss I felt.  During the Winter Olympics, Vancouver did such a great job of presenting itself to the rest of the world.  I felt those 2 weeks in February of 2010 to be such a success.  And yes, my heart broke at the realization that after that Wednesday night, none of the good done at the Olympics would really matter anymore.

I stumbled across this article today, written by Jon Beasley-Murray, a professor at UBC.  I'll admit, I was one of the many angry, embarrassed and empowered quasi-vancouverites who frantically joined all the "ant-riot" type groups on facebook, perhaps subconsciously joining in the effort by several of my other friends to ensure the virtual world that we were "better than".  The article I just absorbed has got me second-guessing some of my vigorous animosity.  It goes without saying that I'm still appalled by the behaviour I witnessed on that tragic night (I do believe it was tragic.  I'm too much of a die-hard Canucks fan to not), but I'm now finding myself wavering a bit with the concept of a "real" Vancouver.  

I really recommend giving Beasley-Murray's article a read.  Regardless of whether or not you agree with his argument, it certainly gets those brain-wheels turning.