Dear Editor,
The shooting of Brian O’Toole and the circumstances surrounding it constitute this surreal circumstance, a confluence of escalating events that feels like too much of a portent than I am comfortable with.
Yes, we live in a society that has been visited by ultraviolence in the recent past, but we’ve taken, granted, cold comfort in the criminal and political circumstance of it, something that needs urgently to be addressed in itself. This however is something that is yet harder to process, even by those heinous standards of acceptance.
O’Toole as I’ve known him has always been that rare thing in this society, a fundamentally decent human being, someone who has not only successfully invested in education in this society, but is passionately invested in education and philanthropic work.
His shooting therefore reads not only as an attack on a singular person but an attack on something symbolic of the better part of our collective nature. I pray that this is something that is an anomaly, and that the person or persons responsible are dealt with swiftly by the justice system.
I’m relieved to hear that Mr. O’Toole is stable and his wounds do not appear to be life-threatening, and wish him the best on his recovery.
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson
