Saturday, July 14, 2007

some thoughts on newspaper editorials

i was reading in the paper this week, and one of the editorial letters said something that upset me. I was still kind of upset because of extremely racist comments made to one of friends, and this letter seemed to excentuate the ignorance of some people. The letter went something like this, and this is not a direct quote: ....being Canadian means Canadian first and foremost, otherwise stay in your home country... It also said something like: I am a albertan "Born and Bred".

Here is what i take issue with, what does it mean to be Canadian? I have no sense of nationalistic identity, other than i should say eh and like hockey.
The reason that imigrants find it so hard to adapt is that there is nothing to become a part of, but really, isn't that the genuis of Canada? we ARE NOT a melting pot like the USA, but as my social teacher in highschool teacher would say, we are a cultural mosaic. How can someone be expected to drop the culture of their homeland and adopt, well... nothing? They can't, that is why communities spring up that are culturally similar.

Rascism just makes me sick and really upsets me and its hard to believe that we have come so far in many social issues yet still lack basic respect for people based on colour of skin.

And most of the remarks are made by people that are completely ignorant, for instance, my friend who had remarks made to her is of Indian descent, her family grew up in India and then moved to Cambodia, then to Canada. Through a weird series of relationships a message was left on her Facebook by a total stranger letting her know all sorts of things about her. Most of the comments were extremely rascist, all from the mind of an angry 17 year old girl. Where does this hate come from? Is it passed on? It must be because how else would someone learn to hate so much, she definatly not old enough to have life experience that would drive her to say such things.

Mao is an excellent card game that everyone should experience learning
peace(please)
don

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