Words
Reading the ill-informed, ridiculous, knee-jerk utilitarian editorials in the Globe, Gazette and Post this morning - all on MP Keith Martin's plan to excise the centre of the Canadian Human Rights Act - it is easy for guys like me to get dejected. And then I talk to a smart and courageous Jewish friend, who tells me we can't back down, because "free speech" does not give anyone a licence to defame and intimidate others on the basis of their race or religion or sexual orientation.
After I hang up, I remembered a photo I snapped on the cell phone camera thing while at the kids' hockey games last weekend, in Agincourt. I found it in the boys' washroom, in smallish letters, but at about a kid's eye level.
It's blurry, but it isn't subtle.
That look like a useful contribution to the marketplace of ideas, to you? Perhaps Keith Martin and the editorial-writers at the Globe, Gazette and Post think it is, but I sure don't.
Neither does this guy, who sent me an email from B.C. last night. He said to use his full name, but I won't - he doesn't deserve the avalanche of hatred and vilification that would inevitably result.
Here's his email.
...
Warren,
I've been closely following this current debate, especially on your blog. It's an issue that is of particular significance to me as a liberal, as someone who has spent a good percentage of their life working with multicultural organizations - the very groups most sensitive to these acts of hatred - and as a Jew.
I decided to respond this morning after your request that we all use our imagination and pretend to be the Jewish kid who wakes up to find the swastika. And that struck a very personal chord, of course, because I can remember vividly what it is like to find symbols of the very hatred and murderous rampage that has left an indelible mark on my family and community painted on my school, my synagogue, and even community cemeteries. I know what it's like to have to feel the need to have police at community events, to have to lock the garbage cans behind the community centre in case someone tries to plant a bomb, and perhaps worst of all, I know what it looks like when you see a young child learn for the first time that there are people who would want them killed just because of their last name, or because of the name they use to refer to the same God.
Worst of all, I know that I've lived a charmed and fortunate life compared to far too many people. I've never really felt that my life was in danger. And most importantly, I've never believed that these feelings were as permanent as the scars that they create.
Some of the most troubling comments and actions were perceived - I fear - not just as an overly-opinionated neo-conservative, but as an overly-opinionated neo-conservative Jew. As much as anything else, I am concerned that those segments of the Muslim community that feel attacked see this as an attack by (what are in reality a very vocal minority of) the Jewish community. So often, he (and so many of his compatriots) intertwine their attacks on Muslim values with a defense of Israel, which I find so very troubling.
I hate the comments and the feelings which motivate them. I hate that Levant felt the need to republish the cartoons which offended so many. But I believe it is their right to do so. Though I wish with all my heart that they wouldn't exercise that right, it is their right. We cannot legislate against hate. No matter how hard we try, people will hate and people will say stupid, hurtful things. And as much as we hate to admit it, we are not concerned about these people... We are concerned about the Fox News rule: when you say stupid, hateful things in a loud enough voice, inevitably many people will assume you're telling the truth.
This whole debate comes amidst the news that in 2008 we're segregating schools in the most polite city on earth. We're firing science advisors for doing their job (as is so often the case, I'm fighting the temptation to reference the West Wing with "science is science to everyone, but we can't sell science."). Gay flags are being banned in Nova Scotia. I can't help but feel that my country is disappearing before my eyes, and what scares me most is that there is no outcry to save it. I'd like to think that if such a brilliant idea as Canada were to die, someone would speak out.
My eyes are glued to the television as I watch with great nerves and great hopes as Americans finally appear poised to elect a voice of morality. Not someone who shrouds their hatred and bigotries in biblical quotes and moral cloaks, but someone who is genuinely willing to defend those people who most need it, to begin working to bring the country together rather than continuing to drive it apart...
I am left sitting here in my office asking this, as a liberal, a Liberal, a Jew and a Canadian: where is our voice?
After I hang up, I remembered a photo I snapped on the cell phone camera thing while at the kids' hockey games last weekend, in Agincourt. I found it in the boys' washroom, in smallish letters, but at about a kid's eye level.
It's blurry, but it isn't subtle.
That look like a useful contribution to the marketplace of ideas, to you? Perhaps Keith Martin and the editorial-writers at the Globe, Gazette and Post think it is, but I sure don't.
Neither does this guy, who sent me an email from B.C. last night. He said to use his full name, but I won't - he doesn't deserve the avalanche of hatred and vilification that would inevitably result.
Here's his email.
Warren,
I've been closely following this current debate, especially on your blog. It's an issue that is of particular significance to me as a liberal, as someone who has spent a good percentage of their life working with multicultural organizations - the very groups most sensitive to these acts of hatred - and as a Jew.
I decided to respond this morning after your request that we all use our imagination and pretend to be the Jewish kid who wakes up to find the swastika. And that struck a very personal chord, of course, because I can remember vividly what it is like to find symbols of the very hatred and murderous rampage that has left an indelible mark on my family and community painted on my school, my synagogue, and even community cemeteries. I know what it's like to have to feel the need to have police at community events, to have to lock the garbage cans behind the community centre in case someone tries to plant a bomb, and perhaps worst of all, I know what it looks like when you see a young child learn for the first time that there are people who would want them killed just because of their last name, or because of the name they use to refer to the same God.
Worst of all, I know that I've lived a charmed and fortunate life compared to far too many people. I've never really felt that my life was in danger. And most importantly, I've never believed that these feelings were as permanent as the scars that they create.
Some of the most troubling comments and actions were perceived - I fear - not just as an overly-opinionated neo-conservative, but as an overly-opinionated neo-conservative Jew. As much as anything else, I am concerned that those segments of the Muslim community that feel attacked see this as an attack by (what are in reality a very vocal minority of) the Jewish community. So often, he (and so many of his compatriots) intertwine their attacks on Muslim values with a defense of Israel, which I find so very troubling.
I hate the comments and the feelings which motivate them. I hate that Levant felt the need to republish the cartoons which offended so many. But I believe it is their right to do so. Though I wish with all my heart that they wouldn't exercise that right, it is their right. We cannot legislate against hate. No matter how hard we try, people will hate and people will say stupid, hurtful things. And as much as we hate to admit it, we are not concerned about these people... We are concerned about the Fox News rule: when you say stupid, hateful things in a loud enough voice, inevitably many people will assume you're telling the truth.
This whole debate comes amidst the news that in 2008 we're segregating schools in the most polite city on earth. We're firing science advisors for doing their job (as is so often the case, I'm fighting the temptation to reference the West Wing with "science is science to everyone, but we can't sell science."). Gay flags are being banned in Nova Scotia. I can't help but feel that my country is disappearing before my eyes, and what scares me most is that there is no outcry to save it. I'd like to think that if such a brilliant idea as Canada were to die, someone would speak out.
My eyes are glued to the television as I watch with great nerves and great hopes as Americans finally appear poised to elect a voice of morality. Not someone who shrouds their hatred and bigotries in biblical quotes and moral cloaks, but someone who is genuinely willing to defend those people who most need it, to begin working to bring the country together rather than continuing to drive it apart...
I am left sitting here in my office asking this, as a liberal, a Liberal, a Jew and a Canadian: where is our voice?