gun totin’ John Wayne painted over in Toronto

After a shooting occurred outside the Duke of York tavern in Queen St E in Toronto, the reaction was as to paint over a long-time picture in front of the tavern of John Wayne with a rifle.

Never mind that in his movies John Wayne never played the villain and stood unambiguously for the good – unlike some of today’s morally ambiguous anti-heroes; and never mind that, thanks to the Hays code, good always triumphed over evil in his movies; all that matters is that John Wayne was carrying a gun (gasp) in that picture.

It has been said in politics, an issue will play out the way it has been framed. And in Toronto at least, the issue of violence has not been ‘framed’ in the perspective of morality, but rather in the perspective of an inanimate object.

As the Toronto Sun  reports, local “Councilor Paula Fletcher, who raised the ‘inappropriate’ nature of the image with the Duke’s owners last week, is pleased that they have taken action.

Paula Fletcher  current affiliation is with the NDP, but she used to be the leader of the “Communist Party of Canada – Manitoba”. Perhaps somebody in her riding should raise the ‘inappropriate nature’ of her one-time affiliation with a murderous ideology that killed 100 million people in the twentieth century.

But perhaps raising that ‘inappropriateness’ would itself be ‘inappropriate,’ so it’s best we just remains silent.

For more info, see also here.

Comments

[WiseGuy]

Ironically, they have painted over a classic hero, when it is just this sort of "Good over Evil" heros that we are lacking in modern culture. No wonder youth wind up looking up to Rap music artists and local gang banging hoodlums, to find a hero. Either that, or they are finding other, even worse heros, like Osama Bin Ladin.