Last nights NHL Hockey game between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks provided me with what I needed to explain why we are all directly responsible for all the cruelty and injustice that we are all so distressed about. I get to explain too, how we can all change it if we really wanted to.

If you didn’t see it you can in our sports section and click on the link to ESPN’s review of the game. Chris Pronger gave a vicious elbow to Dean McAmmond at a high speed and with such force it sent the other player to the doctors for check up, he is not skating today. This was so deliberate and forceful that the result could surely have been death. We pay huge fee’s to watch this. And deep down there is some adrenalin rush that accompanies watching such an act of violence.

It is a reptilian reaction. Our most base instinctual function. It is like hunger or thirst and sex. It is not something we can deny. It is something we can control though.

We all remember the hit, unless you were in a coma, by the former Vancouver Canuck Todd Bertuzzi that sent Steve Moore into traction. The outrage was severe. Fact was it was dirty and deliberate. However this was followed by a dog pile, which may or may not have contributed to further injury. Back to last nights game Pronger claims he didn’t mean to do this (ya right, watch the video clip from the sports section) and is getting a one game suspension. What if the Man was dead? Would he get two games?

The thing here is that this is what they did in Rome and this is what we as a population enjoy.

I played hockey as a kid in Saskatoon and met with the same violence. I quit playing hockey. In grade school I refused to fight by grade seven. I became an ardent pacifist. I rebuke violence at every turn. In grade seven I was challenged to a fight and refused to lift my arms. I was pushed and taunted but because I wouldn’t participate, Bruce couldn’t bring himself to hit me. We could all learn from this. Refuse to watch or participate and, in a positive way, shun those way that do. There is no benefit in making someone feel bad. The Rotary Club has a good set of four rules to apply to everything you do. Is it the Truth, is it Fair to all concerned, will it build Goodwill and better Friendships, Will it be Beneficial. The four way test. Ask a member; this is the strength of the Rotary Club.

There is another type of person that will do harm regardless. I do not quite know how to change them. Same Grade, probably same week, Jeff wanted to fight me. I again refused. I said “It is you that wants to fight not me” and I refused to raise my hands. He hit me solid in the jaw. Then again, my nose too, I was bleeding big time. I know that right now some reading this are thinking “right on” and laughing too. Check yourself out. What part of your brain is causing this reaction? Guy’s and Girls are the same. “Sugar and spice and everything nice” is a lie.

It is the same reptilian instinct that makes us want to drive big powerful cars and trucks. I drive an electric bike. I do not need to impress anyone. Most of us need to do things to impress our friends. We feel better when we feel we are included, part of the group. The group is bad. We need to change the group mentality. That means, I guess, the immoral majority.

We will never change the world or the environment until we address the way we think. Chris Pronger should be in jail. But then, and this is the clincher, Jeff? In 2002, last time I went back to my hometown, I asked about him. He was promoted to one of the highest positions in his profession, Senior Investigator in the City Police Department. He may not be the same person, but I wonder.