RIP Jonathon Zak (Jonni Zak)

Jonni Zack was one of those friends that you could go without seeing for years, then meet up randomly and it was as though time had never passed. He was a great guy who would (literally) have given the shirt off his back to someone else if they needed it and never asked nor expected anything in return. He was naive in that kind of "always trusting / believe that there is good in the world" kind of way, a dreamer, and a philosopher at heart.


He was one of the good guys, which is what makes his murder even more unfair and unbelievable. Wasn’t this only supposed to happen in drug deals gone wrong? Or rival gangs meeting up for a turf war? And surely not here in Canada! Guns are a USA thing. And again, why Jonni? They say one of the stages of mourning is denial, and it’s not that I don’t believe it, more so that I just don’t want to.


Now, as bad as it may seem, all I want is to see whoever did this suffer like they must have made him. Being jailed really just doesn’t seem like enough penance for what they’ve done. You see victims families crying out for justice and try to take a higher moral ground than vengeance because it isn’t happening to you. You think to yourself “at least they caught the guy, let the system do its thing” and go back to drinking your XL Double Double and scratching your Instant Bingo card hoping to at least win your crappy $3 back.


Then you get a little taste of what it feels like to be close to something like this and your safe little pedestal begins to crumble. You find out you’re not as pacified as you thought / hoped and just know that whatever the outcome, it will never be enough. Death isn’t even enough, and it wouldn’t bring back JZ anyways. Some ignorant piss-ant little fuck took my friend away from me and is going to have the audacity to get to live a comfortable life in jail on MY tax dollars? Just the thought of honest people (myself included) paying for his / her bread and bars disgusts me, and it’s better than they deserve. There are homeless people on the streets who haven’t done anything wrong except be down on their luck who have less than what this murderer is going to get provided for them.


There is no “Kick Ass” or “Punisher” or anyone else out here in the real world who’d dispense justice with a bullet like seems fit after this experience. Jonni, our crew and I were always into comic books, fantasy and sci-fi and I wish some of those protagonists we adored could actually be here for times like these. I guess we’re going to have to settle for the “regular” police, which is a disappointment when something like this is so random and people in the neighbourhood are fearful to talk. I hope those people realize that it’s their own fear that allows these predators to keep doing what their doing. The best way I can sum it up is with a quote by Edmund Burke:

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”


You never gave in to societies demands Jonni, and good for you sir! In the end, you were able to live your life the way you wanted and sucked every precious moment into doing the things that you loved. If life were an essence, Jonni, there wouldn’t have been a lot of yours, but DAMN would it have been potent shit! :)


Rest well my friend. We’ll all miss you. Forever.

Carl Szalich



Video link to News Story:
http://www.ctvlondon.ca/2012/05/slain-man-identified/

London Free Press Article Online:
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2012/05/31/19820091.html