Wishing Death On Rob Ford

Rob Ford passed away today after a fight with cancer. Regardless of what you thought of him, that is an awful way to go that no one should have to go through. Man wasn't even fifty. 

There were people at points in Rob Ford's being Mayor of Toronto that wished death on him. So many tweets about how the man should be killed or die some terrible death or whatever. You'd at least hope that these same people don't find some sort of joy in the news today. Wishing death on someone on twitter is bad and odd enough, let alone being actually happy when it happens. 

And what did people want him to die for? For not being a great Mayor. For smoking crack. For saying that he didn't eat a woman because he had enough to eat at home. For charging at someone during a city council meeting. For putting Toronto on the map for not the best of reasons. For saying that cyclists shouldn't have their own lanes, and that if they get hit by a car it's their own fault (or some sentence like that. Believe it actually had the term 'they are swimming with sharks' in it.) For not going to the gay pride parade. For not knowing that This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a joke news show and thinking they were real reporters coming to attack him. For SO many reasons. But are ANY of these worthy of death? 

Once the man admitted to smoking crack on TV, which is just an unbelievable thing that actually happened, all of his mayoral power was taken away from him. Rob Ford couldn't even have had a stop sign taken down if he wanted to at that point, and people STILL hated him. People STILL wanted the man to die. 

People were mad at Rob Ford as if he casted some kind of spell and magically became Mayor Of Toronto. As if he waved his hand and said, 'It shall be done! I will be Mayor number one!' and floated onto the top of the CN Tower while lightning struck all around him. That's not what happened. People VOTED for Rob Ford. I know, because I voted against him. There was a voting process, and Rob Ford won the majority of the votes. Now, why, WHY be mad at that man who was voted in, and NOT mad at ALL at the people who voted for him? Shouldn't SOME of your anger be directed at them? Rob Ford wasn't the greatest Mayor. We can all agree on that. But SOME of the blame should lie with the people who thought he would be great, not SOLELY on the man who didn't end up being great. 

The people who voted against him and didn't think he'd be a good mayor were proved right. The man embarrassed himself so many times. Just an incredible amount. But did that make the people who voted against him happy? Not all. Some STILL wished him DEATH. Death! For being on camera drunk in a Jamaican restaurant. For COMPLETELY falling on his ass when he tried to throw a football. For walking directly into a camera when he came out of an office. For making Toronto a joke for a good couple of months. And again, I say, Rob Ford didn't do this alone. Rob Ford was aided by people that voted for him.

Rob Ford clearly was a man who had some issues. No denying that. The man was caught on camera drunk and maybe high, screaming that he was going to kill someone. Cool for a Mayor of even a coffee table to do? Absolutely not. But the way that PEOPLE attacked him, tweeted that he should be hit by cars are thrown off of cliffs, act as if THEY have never done anything bad. As if they don't know anyone who has some problems. As if EVERYone in their family is without a drinking problem who might turn a family gathering into a small intervention.  The air of superiority these people had was incredible. Should Rob Ford have been Mayor? Probably not. Were many of the things he did justified in terms of SMOKING CRACK and RUSHING WOMEN IN CITY COUNCIL? Of course not. But does that mean that people should have wished death on him? No. 

Rob Ford wasn't a great mayor, wasn't a great face for Toronto and shouldn't have held any real power. But he was also clearly a man with some problems, clearly a man who needed some help and clearly a flawed.  In society, for other people, we pretend that we all have it all together and that there is no attachment to us and problems. The only people that would truly no about alcoholics in your family say would be the closest of friends and the like. Which makes sense, you can't just go around OPENING conversations with the fact that your dad drinks too much, but we shouldn't also condemn others for such things as if we couldn't fathom at all how something like substance abuse could happen. 

Regardless of what you thought of Rob Ford, death wasn't something that he deserved. Deserved not to have power over a city? Of course. But think about his last little while. Do you think the man wanted to pass away at 46, after making himself a world wide laughing stock for his actions? I doubt it.

I wasn't a Rob Ford guy, I voted against the man. But it's sad at points when you see the lack of compassion from strangers with computers.