Southern Poverty Law Center has released some new information about the alleged killer, Wade Michael Page. He was founder of white-power hardcore band “End Apathy.” He says also played in other hate bands, like “Blue-Eyed Devils.” According to Last FM, that band’s discography includes songs titled “The Final Solution,” and “Vandalize and Victimize.” Other song names the band has are arguably even more offensive than that so I’d rather not repeat them and I don’t want to give them the glory of an incoming link. You can look it up if you really feel compelled to on a search engine.

I’m really not sure how to give this story the appropriate analysis it deserves. I do know America is hurting right now, and that the Sikh community is hurting right now, and I want to give both all the empathy and space I can muster.

Then, after that space is given, we talk. An incident so surrounded by racism demands discussion of cultural xenophobia. Page says he was in multiple racist music groups—he bonded with others over his violent ideology on websites, even at music festivals. How does our culture allow for people to hold and perpetuate such awful beliefs? How could a mindset like Page’s have gone unchecked in the first place? An incident so shortly after the Colorado shooting also demands the discussion of gun control.

I do know one thing: whatever analysis you choose, whatever discussions you start, they’re going to be political.

Only a few weeks ago ago after the massacre in Colorado, presidential candidates were skirting issues around the shooting, saying that the wake of tragedy was not the time to talk about the bigger picture. It was not the time to ‘politicize the issue.’

But as MSNBC newscaster Melissa Harris Perry said then, national tragedy and how we deal with it is about policy. And policy is political.

When tragedies like this one shock a nation, mourning is not enough. Working through the grief means learning from the rage. In this case, as in so many others, people have to ask themselves: ‘How do we prevent something so heinous from happening again?’

Gurdas Maan had to do a makeup concert on Monday after police shut down his Sunday night show in Calgary.

12,000 people showed up at the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary on Sunday night to see a concert by Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan. According to the Calgary Herald, about 10 of those concertgoers were wearing Kirpans, the ceremonial dagger worn by some observant Sikhs. When security guards at the venue refused those people entry, citing the blades as the reason, there was some, shall we say, disagreement about the sensibility and sensitivity of this decision. Views were expressed, opinions aired, and it ended with the police shutting down the whole concert at 9:30 pm, arresting a bunch of people, and dispersing the crowd into the night.

Some of you will remember that we already settled the whole Kirpan issue in 2006, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled (in Multani v.Commission scolaire Marguerite‑Bourgeoys) that wearing the Kirpan fell under the protections of reasonable accommodation in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and therefore a 12 year old student could wear his Kirpan in class, despite the fact that his school had a no-knives rule. Not all knives are created equal, the court decided. Some of them are religious symbols, and we protect people’s religion around these parts. If you can wear a Kirpan to math class, wearing one to a pop concert isn’t a big deal.

Listen: Gurdas Maan’s “Gur Ka Darshan Dekh Dekh Jeeva”

It appears that the Telus Convention Centre bouncers didn’t get the memo. Not that we expect all concert bouncers to be totally up to speed on their constitutional law all the time, sure, but really: a handful of old guys attending a concert with their families? For this you shut down a concert by “India’s Michael Jackson,” as the Calgary Herald calls him? Let’s display a little common sense, shall we?