The Old Evil-Eye

I find it annoying when some 'friend' hate-spams me and I feel that I have to Reply to All to defend sanity and reasoned thought. I'm pining for the good old days when I only got spammed about saving a child from leukemia by forwarding an email...because Bill Gates is testing an email-tracking device and will pay for my help. Now all I seem to get is idiotic, thinly-veiled (if at all), right-wing, racist diatribes that hope for conformity and lack of thinking. At least this one wasn't about President Obama.

Following is an email to which I replied. My response was a tad long and sharp, so following that email is my edited reply that I sent to the Edmonton Journal. I have no idea if they'll run it - but it felt good writing it.

Their email:

Congratulations to our fellow Canadians in Quebec who had the courage and conviction to exhibit their common sense in officially banning the hijab for certain transactions where identity is mandatory .... It's a start. It's a privilege to be allowed to immigrate and to live in this country....not a right. When this hit the e-news a few weeks ago, there was overwhelming support by the readers who AGREED with Quebec's action.

The letter below says it all...keep it going.

A Letter to the Editor (excellent letter)

So many letter writers have explained how this land is made up of immigrants. Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people why today's Canadian is not willing to accept the new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to Canada, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in Halifax and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground.

They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new Canadian households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home. They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture.

Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labour laws to protect them. All they had were the skills, craftsmanship and desire they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity. Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out.Canadians fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Sweden, Poland and so many other places. None of these first generation Canadians ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Canadians fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan.

They were defending the Freedom as one people. When we liberated France, no one in those villages was looking for the Ukrainian-Canadian or the German-Canadian or the Irish-Canadian.The people of France saw only Canadians. And we carried one flag that represented our country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here.
These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be a Canadian. They stirred the melting pot into one red and white bowl.

And here we are in 2009 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes a Canadian passport and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being a Canadian is all about. Canadians have been very open- hearted and open-minded regarding immigrants, whether they were fleeing poverty, dictatorship, persecution, or whatever else makes us think of those aforementioned immigrants who truly did ADOPT our country, and our flag and our morals and our customs, and left their wars, hatred, and divisions behind.

I believe that the immigrants who landed in Canada in the early 1900s deserve better than that for the toil, hard work and sacrifice those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags, fighting foreign battles on our soil, making Canadians change to suit their religions and cultures, and wanting to change our countries fabric by claiming discrimination when we do not give in to their demands.

Its about time we get real and stand up for our forefathers rights, we are CANADIAN Lest we forget it I am a Native of this Country & proud of it!
NO MORE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
NO MORE not saying CHRISTMAS in stores and our schools!
I Want my Canada of birth BACK

P.S. -- Please pass this on to everyone you know!!!

KEEP THIS LETTER MOVING!!

Hope this letter is read by millions of people all across Canada!!

My letter:

You’re going to get an email. It’s an excellent email – it’ll even tell you so. You’re supposed to forward it all around. It’ll be congratulating our fellow Canadians in Quebec for the poll that takes away the right of Muslim women to wear certain religious garb where identification is needed. This email will talk of conviction, courage, rights, immigration, and the good old days of the Canada of their birth. Glenn Beck of Fox News would be proud of this letter.

But this poll (and Bill 94) isn't about religious wear and freedom -- it's about fear of something different. Well…fear, racism, religious intolerance, and hatred – but they're connected. I’m going to mostly leave aside all the ‘We were never given anything’ rhetoric of the email, which seems to have forgotten about the free tracts of land given to anyone who agreed to homestead out west in order to out-populate the Americans and Native Indians. And, of course, other inconvenient truths like the Japanese-Canadian internment camps of WW2.

My letter is just to point out the crux of this issue: Muslim women haven’t actually objected to being identified!

Their objection is only to this one method. For them, being viewed by a person who is not their family is the equivalent of a western woman having to take off her underwear to be identified. These women could instead be fingerprinted, retinally scanned, DNA sampled, or have an imbedded microchip. All of these techniques are far superior to a tiny picture being checked by a questionably-trained person anyway. For fans of irony – if any of these techniques were used, then they'd actually be more positively identified and traceable than a non-Muslim.

After all, a picture is an outdated and questionably-accurate method of identification. Do you still look exactly like your ID -- same weight, hair colour, facial hair, tattoos, scars, etc? If not, prepare to have your vacation ruined by Customs. No makeup or concealer, ladies - that scar needs to be seen for identification purposes. And guys – be prepared to shave off your beard and mustache because they obscure your face. After all, you’ve said that only seeing your eyes isn’t good enough.