Child of Hate Crimes

This week, the world we live in, here in a small city, south of London, Ontario, was brought to a halt. On Sunday, June 7, 2021, a family was innocently enjoying an evening stroll down their street when they were viciously run over by a racist man in a truck. How did the world get this bad? There have been horrific things in this world. However, when a man with Russel Crowe syndrome decides to accelerate at a traffic light because he is suddenly ignited by a family dressed in Muslim garb, the movie Unhinged, has only taught me that you have to run away, as fast as you can! How can I compare this tragic event to such a horrible movie, you might ask? What else can I compare such an unimaginable event to? I can't fathom what witnessing such an event would look like. There were many witnesses, by the way. I can't imagine what I would say to that man if I could go up to his truck with a golf club and a pair of scissors. I can't believe that something like this would happen so close to home and I am saddened that the only thing I feel, as a result of this upsetting event, is that I no longer feel comfortable walking on a sidewalk in London...

To top off the fact that a well-respected and educated mother and father, a 15-year old daughter in high school, and a dear 74-year old grandmother are no longer in this world, poor 9-year old Fayez Afzaal lies in a London hospital with broken limbs and possibly no knowledge that he is the last living family member after this larger-than-life incident. My first thought was, does he have family close by who will raise him as their own? As the funeral stated, Fayez is now an orphan. My son said it would be cool to be an orphan. That way, you can have super powers! If this is how a 6-year old thinks, then I really hope that Fayez will eventually be himself again and (maybe) be as optimistic as a kid who has never experienced harship in his life.

It has truly touched my heart, the outpouring of love from the community and support from the government, in response to this horrific event. Not only did Doug Ford waive COVID protocols so that Ontarians could gather for the vigil, all leaders of the federal government arrived within days of the event to show their solidarity against Islamaphobia.

So, where do we go from here? Influential members of the Muslim community are talking to the press to turn the tragedy of this event into something that incites change in policies. Government can take action to eliminate racism. Policies can be created to treat people equally instead of favoring a specific race. If multiculturalism is embraced from the top, the citizens of this country can be proud to display who they really are. Trudeau, himself, admitted that we are not as multicultural as we claim to be!

Yet, my mind comes back to the source of the racism. What ideas were in the head of this man, Nathaniel Veltman? How could he have the gall to think that running over one Muslim family would even out the playing field? What kind of a man has the balls to drive over a fellow human being (or 4), believing that it is the right thing to do? It has me revamping my whole post about the number of personality types. Could he really just fall into the "mean" category and leave it at that? Perhaps, I have to expand my personality types into the reasoning behind WHY they have this personality...

Let's take a look at The Celestine Prophecy by Ahmed Redfield. Haha, that was my spellcheck, ironically enough! It is actually written by James Redfield and I gotta say, it changed my life! It states that there are 4 control personalities or "dramas": the interrogator, the intimidator, the poor me, and the aloof. There is a particular order to these as well, based on how much control or fear you want to exert on other people. The book infers that people develop these personalities from childhood because our families are the first people we practice taking energy from. It is all about control and how we obtain energy from others. Perhaps, for Nathaniel, he felt that he had no control in his life...by ruining another family's life, he would somehow regain control in his life. Or, maybe it will all come out that is was simply a case of mental health issues. Temporary insanity is still a plea, right? We cannot presume that Nathaniel was completely innocent in his actions. While the police have not linked him to any racist organizations, somebody put this bug in his ear. We are always looking for someone to blame when things go bad. This week, it was him.

This is the first time that I am naming a criminal publicly. A little nervous here. Anyway, something to ponder and I hope something to tug at your heartstrings in this pandemic world we live in. People are dying, not due to COVID. This family did not deserve to be victims of racism and they certainly did not need to die at the hands of it. They had done nothing wrong. As for Fayez, nothing in this world or this universe would ask a 9-year old to live the life that he is now about embark on. My heart breaks when I think of him and what he has gone through; what he will feel when he is told the news of his family, while recovering alone in the hospital; and how he will react when he realizes that this world is full of bad people with bad thoughts. We will be dropping off a card for Fayez next week. The London Islamic School has a dropbox to forward any messages to the hospital where he has just come out of surgery. God speed, Allah be with him, and praise Jesus that he lives a long and prosperous life without residual remorse or anger.

Stay tuned for my next post about Plastics!