7 painful years ago today – December 3, 2005 – our friend Lee Matasi was shot down in the streets and killed dead for no reason, all because he voiced his opinion to an ignorant idiot who thought it was cool to carry around a deadly weapon and flash it openly.

I still remember the day it happened and how I was arguing with a young teenager at the Cloverdale Youth Centre while I was working about Gangsters and Guns and fighting and shit like that. It’s so hard to get across to these kids that what happens in movies and on records in the music is not something to think is cool. Violence is not cool, it’s ignorant. Weapons are not cool, there destructive. And murder is definitely not cool, it’s the worst thing you could do. Not only do you end someone’s life without justice but you cause everyone who loved that person to hate – hate the world, hate the system, hate you. During the time I was having this ridiculous conversation with this ignorant kid, Lee Matasi lost his life…

I didn’t know it had happened until Monday when my wife Carrie called me from work crying. Someone had brought in the newspaper and put it in front of her, and there was a picture of Lee with the story of him being shot. I had never cried so uncontrollably in my life up to that point. All I could think of was Why? And How? Why would someone shoot Lee? And how could anybody just shoot someone dead? It changed my whole life. I was already fully against weapons, but this incident made me think twice before stating my opinion about things I didn’t agree with to people I didn’t know. It took away every last bit of trust I had for anyone any more. And it broke my heart to think about how his family had to suffer.

Lee was a great guy, and I’ve written lots of articles about him and what he meant to me, and how he helped to change the face of skateboarding in Vancouver. He is a legend. And proof of that was when we all gathered into the Tunnel called Leeside and paid our respects to him only days after he was killed. Hundreds of people, skateboarders, graffiti artists, and anyone else that knew him joined together in a heartbreaking ceremony to remember the man he was. And not one person in that crowd had a dry eye.

It’s times like that where I believe in the Death Penalty. When you outright take someone’s life away without rhyme or reason and the proof is there, you deserve to die. 16 years of imprisonment without chance of parole was the sentence for one Dennis Robert White, the man that killed our friend. But to me, that’s not enough.

I thank Michelle Pezel at Antisocial Skate Shop for all the I Love Lee Matasi gear they have created over the years to help us show our appreciation, and also Momentum Wheels for the I Love Lee Wheels they made. We all miss Lee Matasi every day. The smiles he brought to the skate park, the crazy tricks he would land first try, and that mellow stoned look in his eyes. And every time I skate at Leeside Memorial Park I give him praise. That place has come so far from when Lee originally found it and we began putting skateable objects down there and it’s a damn shame that he isn’t here to enjoy it. But in spirit he is, and we are with him today and every day.

Rest in Peace Lee Matasi – a hero to so many

you will never be forgotten…

I was just informed by my Mom that my Dad, Raymond James Faux, will be recognized by the Heritage Exhibit at the Banting Farmhouse at Banting Homestead Heritage Park in Alliston, Ontario. The Banting Farmhouse is a public exhibit space which was just restored at the original Farmhouse where Sir Frederick Banting was born in 1891. As a “50 year user of Insulin” my Dad will join a list of others who have reached this historic milestone. Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 15 it seems amazing that this chemical balance assisted in his survival for so many years, and I can recall him talking about it just before he passed away, how amazed he was that he had been on insulin for 50 years. Insulin was discovered in 1921/1922 by the team of Frederick Banting and Charles Best at the University of Toronto in a lab space provided by physiologist Dr J. McLeod. Along with biochemist J.B. Collip, they discovered a way to produce commercial qualities of insulin, and so began the battle against Diabetes. McLeod and Banting were awarded the Nobel Prize for their accomplishments and were actually the first Canadians to ever have that honour. Ironically my Father’s Grandfather, Allan Brock, worked as a Lab Technician at the Toronto General Hospital during this time period and actually helped to create the equipment necessary for Banting and Best’s research in the discovery of insulin. A huge connection to my Father’s pride.

It’s a shame that my Dad did not get to experience this moment, but I am very happy that he will be recognized and his story of survival will be told. He was a huge influence on my frame of mind to always push through any battle, set lots of impossible goals, and to never give up on anything I believe in and I hope to go and see the exhibit someday soon.

Raymond James Faux – Hero, Warrior, True Man – Forever Loved

1947-2012

For more information of Frederick Banting and the Banting Farmhouse click the link

www.bantinglegacy.ca.

Is the end of the world on it’s way? Were the Mayans right when they predicted that December 21, 2012 will be the last day we all see? According to the Mayan Calendar, that’s the final day. And with all these chaotic Natural Disasters happening around us, people are really starting to believe it.

2 large earthquakes off the coast of British Columbia causing Tsunami Warnings on Vancouver Island, and then this nasty Hurricane Sandy happening in the Atlantic Ocean, destroying parts of New York City. The city that never sleeps, had to learn how to swim, and fast. It is very rare that both Oceans are being negatively active at the same time like this.

There is always talk of the world coming to an end, and hey, the end is on the way. That doesn’t mean that it will happen this year though. Remember the Great Millennium Scare? The world was gonna end then too. The entire North American atmosphere was upside down over that one, buying tons of supplies, and building Bomb Shelters, and preparing for all the airlines to crash, and so on. Why? Because the government and the news kept talking like it was going to happen, and people believed it. Was the whole world fooled back then? Is the whole world going to be fooled again? The news is the worst thing for us as people, you have to believe some of what you see and hear, but how much of it? Look at this photo of the Statue of Liberty getting swarmed by the clouds. Everyone knew that there was a Hurricane Warning down there and so when someone photoshopped this picture and put it out on the internet it was huge news, and everyone started worrying right away that it was really happening. I thought it was a scene from the original Ghostbusters Movie myself, but you never know what’s real and what’s not. I mean it is kind of coincidental that 2 months before the predicted end of existence there is mayhem, but mayhem happens all the time. The past decade especially has been packed with tons of Natural Disasters, or “Acts of God” as some would call them, all over the world. There was Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which completely demolished New Orleans and left the people struggling to survive without immediate help from the American Government. There was the Tsunami that followed the massive Earthquake in 2010 and washed out more than half of Haiti which is still trying to recover. And what about the Cyclone Nargis in 2008 where almost 150,000 people in Burma lost their lives. All of these Disasters have been happening all over the world, and that’s part of the Earth and the way it revolves. If anything, we the Human Race, are the ones promoting these Natural Disasters in the sense of our technical evolution, drilling the earth for resources, and placing satellites all around us in space generating waves of electrical energy.

So what is going to happen next?

Is the world going to explode? Or is it just the living creatures that will be abolished?

Will we have another Ice Age?

Or is the centre of the earth just going to open up and swallow us whole?

Nobody knows what or when, but they tell you to be ready for it everyday, and that part is true. Because the way things are going, you never know what Natural Disaster is hiding around the corner ready to pounce on you, your city, and even your Country that you live in, and all you can do is hope that it doesn’t happen. Don’t take your days for granted, and love as many people as you can, so when the day does come you can feel accomplished.

Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, floods and fires –  

Onward to 2013.

http://voices.yahoo.com/ten-natural-disasters-2000-2009-5107511.html?cat=58 

What is wrong with this world that we are still accepting the fact that it’s okay to have guns around. We are not warriors fighting for survival and  trying to take over each others land. We don’t need to hunt and kill animals for survival. So why are these weapons still so accessible?

I picked up the newspaper off my porch this morning and the cover said, “Border Guard shot in neck will recover…” Wow. We live in Canada and we have to worry about people trying to shoot there way across the border, what is wrong with people? Some poor dude goes to work on a Tuesday and gets shot in the neck for it. As far as I knew we actually have gun laws in this country that make it illegal for people to carry them around in streets, unlike the United States. So how come I know of 3 totally unrelated stories that involved guns that all happened around here on Monday and Tuesday of this week? And I don’t even watch the news. We need to discourage weapons. What the kids don’t understand is that carrying a weapon for protection is gonna get them killed. Or they’re gonna take someone else’s life and pay for it the rest of theirs.

I’ve had 3 friends die to the gun, none of who deserved it at all – Rachel Hunter, trying to stop an argument outside a bar; Chris Whitmee, taking a piss beside the wrong person who someone tried to assassinate; and Lee Matasi, chased down the street for voicing his opinion and being ignorantly shot straight up in the head.  And do you think any of these people who committed these murders were punished enough, or even at all for some cases? And what about the families of these innocent victims? What did these incidents do to them and to their lifestyles? Why do we still have these guns?

I just don’t think it’s fair to any of us civilized people to have to worry about dying to a bullet at any given moment wherever we are. This is not a knife or a club where the person has to come near you to hurt you, these are guns, that shoot death across the sky.

We don’t need them…