Inside King's-Edgehill School
Dear KES Family:
Men. We have to be better.
The statistics tell the story. Every mass shooting in Canada has been committed by men. Between 1982 and February 2020 in the USA there were 113 mass shootings by men, 3 by women. In Canada, over 6,000 women and children sleep in shelters every night because it is not safe for them at home. Worldwide, 96% of tactical shooter and first person shooter video gamers are male.
Men. We have normalized violence. From mixed martial arts to ice hockey, from John Wayne and John Rambo to John Wick, from Call of Duty to Fortnite, we normalize fighting in our lives. We have to do a better job preventing it from being real or normal.
Whether it is nature or nurture, whether because of our upbringing, our DNA, or levels of testosterone, or some anthropological propensity that is a throwback to times when we were hunters and gatherers, we (me included) are generally attracted to violence. Men. We have to do a better job of resisting our impulses. We cannot let impulse become action, nor fantasy become reality.
All of us, men and women, know the difference between good and bad, right and wrong. What defines us as good people or not is internal discipline. We all struggle with temptation and thoughts of things that we know are wrong. We would not be human if we didn’t. All of us wrestle with our dark sides. We all battle with the desire for pleasure or the onslaught of anger and rage. Even Paradise has its forbidden fruit, its temptations. What defines us is our moral compass and our internal strength.
Of all the lessons we must learn as we grow up it seems to me that the most important are these two elements: our set of morals and our ability to live by them. To be the best partner, or child, or parent, or friend…we not only need to be “good” but strong enough to be consistently good. Weakness is not a lack of muscle fibre but of moral fibre. Weakness is a lack of moral strength.
This is why all those things we do at KES are important. This is why we have readings in Chapel and teach service in Cadets. This is why we have high expectations of conduct and herald the core values of our Mission statement of “gentleness, learning, dignity, and respect”. This is why the Honour Roll is based on student Effort and not marks. This is why I believe in the School so much.
We are all hurting this week. I feel for everyone. Our emotional burdens are already heavy and this week’s events have been devastating. What strength I have is yours. I send it to you freely. Wishing I could give everyone the warmest KES hug ever.