Letters to the Editor
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Re: Canadian Identity
Canada has a distinct identiy: It is the sane, progressive, tolerant, peaceful and humane country that the US could have been and should aspire to.
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see what i mean, jarad2?
"not U.S." is not SATISFYING. "sane, progressive, tolerant, peaceful, humane" - who could worked up enough to root for that?
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Do as I say, not as I did.
How can our Commander-in-Chief, who deserted his Air Guard unit during the Vietnam war, prosecute an American who also deserts? I suppose that, in his drug and alcohol-addled mind, it's OK for him, but not for anyone else. That hubris seems to have been a theme throughout his life, and THE central theme of his presidency. It makes Nixon's infamous "If the President does it, it is not against the law" seem almost benign.
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You know how women claim they control their bodies and therefore determine if a child lives?
How come women never apply this equally to MEN? Seems women control their bodies and let society control men's bodies. How is this fair? Is this the new fourth or fifth wave 'feminism'?
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re: sugarman
ya know, alot of people up here have spent alot of time trying to come up with a "canadian identity", something akin to the shorthand you guys have come up with...and know what we've realized? There's more to a national identity than empty symbolism. Flags and Apple Pie? C'mon man...what exactly does that SAY about a people? I'd much rather have our identity based on the things that Jared2 has enumerated.
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For Ms Madox
Please let me know when you find a country to move to. I've been thinking of moving from Texas to Canada ever since GWB took power. Now it seems Canada isn't a good option either. Maybe Sweden?
Disheartened
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Canadian support for their Prime Minister weak
It's important to understand our current Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper got elected with much less of the popular vote than Bush did in 2000. He did however receive more votes than any of the three other parties in Parliament to form a minority government (Canadians wanted an alternative due to a corruption scandal in the major opposition party, but wanted to put him on a very short rope). It's expected that he will lose a vote of confidence in the coming year (triggering an election) & will likely not be reelected, due to his ever decreasing popularity. The overwhelming majority of Canadians (it's been shown in poll after poll) disapprove of Bush to a much greater degree than even America does currently. There's a reason Tucker Carlson & other Conservatives like to rant against Canada.
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The Vietnam Generation Has Let Its Children Down
I read 'Northern Exposure' with profound sadness and an inexplicably painful sense of guilt. From the '60s through the early '70s, thousands of my friends chose to leave the US and move to Canada rather than face death in the jungles fighting what they knew to be an unjust war. (As if any war can be considered 'just'.) For them, leaving friends and family was the only viable alternative to participating or possibly dying in a war that could only benefit the Wealthy in America.
Today, the Vietnam Generation has evolved into America's Baby Boomers. We who fought in and over the war in Vietnam now find our nation in another vile, distasteful conflict in a distant land. As in the Vietnam War, the US is using its comparatively poor, youthful citizens to force its Will on a foreign people quite diffent from their fellows. Only this time, there is a profound and incidious twist.
The not so hidden purpose of the Iraqi war is to secure Iraq's OIL so Wealthy America will not have to face any stoppage in its Global Revenue Flow. Unfortunately for America's unwitting though loyal youth being sent to achieve this objective, the Iraqis are smart enough to see through Bush rhetoric about WMDs, Al-Quaida and 'Democracy'. Like the Viet Cong, Iraqi
'insurgents' have peeked behind the curtain and seen America's real intentions. All they want our troops to do is leave. But they cannot and will not. Our Wealthy MUST HAVE Iraqi OIL--not to 'create a better life for all Americans' but merely to sustain their Wealth and America's position in the world.
Sadly, like our parents before us, we Vietnam Era Baby Boomers just don't seem to have the will or moral rectitude to stop America's Wealthy from sending off our children to kill 1,000s of foreign citizens just to ensure an adequate supply of Oil.
Instead of protecting our progeny from harm, all we can do is wring our hands, mutter platitudes about 'democracy' and 'the War on Terror' and send them off to die much like some Aztec sacrifice to the War God.
The continuing Republican-induced 'group think' is painful for me to observe. It started when we behaved like a 'Banana Republic' in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Today, what resonates so strongly throughout 'Northern Exposure' is how poorly we Baby Boomer parents let our politicians treat the only real evidence we have to offer that we ever lived...
our children.
However, we have bought into the need of American Wealthy for Iraqi Oil thinking we will somehow benefit. We have given Bus and their Military Minions wide lattitude to order youthful soldiers to commit unconscionable acts of violence on Iraqi citizenry. As in the Vietnam War, the Illogical Nightmare of War is driving young American soldiers to leave the land and families they love so dearly and move to Canada. Indeed, many Vietnam War Era Baby Boomers now there will mark the 20th. anniversary of their sad, though righteous journey to inner peace. My heart goes out Canada's Americans. We need them here!
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Geting off topic, but...
To the anonymous person who wrote:
"I live in Manhattan and often stay in LA - I doubt you have any cities as modern and cosmopolitan as either of those two towns - yet here you hating on my country..."
You doubt that Canada has cities as modern and cosmopolitan as New York and LA? So, you're saying you're not sure?
And you consider LA cosmopolitan?
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Re: See What I mean
"sane, progressive, tolerant, peaceful, humane" - who could worked up enough to root for that?
You mean you would rather root for an insane PNAC policy of world domination, an intolerant govenment that sends innocent people to secret CIA camps to be tortured, a government that practices continuous warfare to keep up the profits of the military-industrial complex and an inhumane society that enriches the pharmaceautical and health insurance companies while letting people die for lack of health care? I think sane, progressive, tolerant, peaceful, humane and compassionate sounds pretty good right about now.