Vancouver marijuana smokers help change the channel from mass murder

Several years ago, satirical writer Brian Salmi told me that April 20 was his birthday.

I immediately blurted out that he was born on the same day as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Salmi replied it was the first time anyone had ever mentioned this to him.

Of course, Salmi's not alone in this regard. April 20 also happens to be the birthday of actors Jessica Lange and George Takei, as well as model Miranda Kerr.

The link to Hitler is one reason why I'm happy that downtown Vancouver fills up with the scent of marijuana for the annual 4/20 celebration.

It has helped change mood at this time of year, which has coincided with some grisly mass murders south of the border.

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Timothy McVeigh detonating a truck bomb outside a federal building in Oklahoma City. It killed 168 people and injured 600 others.

It was the 22nd anniversary of cult leader David Koresh and his Branch Davidians dying in a mysterious fire. It started after the FBI launched an assault on their compound in Waco, Texas.

A mass shooting at Virginia Tech took place on April 16, 2007. The Columbine school massacre happened on April 20, 1999, possibly to coincide with Hitler's birthday.

Then there was the notorious Boston Marathon bombing, which occurred on April 15, 2013.

An article on livescience.com notes that U.S. mass shootings have not been confined to April so it would be premature to label this as terrorism month. Still, it's worth noting that there were another six ISIS terrorism-related arrests in the United States today.

Also today, leaders of Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party go on trial for allegedly running a criminal organization.

We're still a few days away from the 70th anniversary of Hitler's death, which occurred on April 30, 1945. Wouldn't it be sweet if those Greek neo-Nazis received lengthy prison sentences on that day?