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Happy Canada Day!
Jul. 1st, 2010 07:25 amI'm not a die-hard patriot. I don't love my country solely because it's my country and despite its failings. I'm not a fan of nationalistic fervour as a way to raise armies or keep people complacent in the face of nastiness from government. I try to look critically at the good and bad.
There's been some bad this week. Police very near here treated essential liberties as privileges to be taken away at a whim. They treated journalists as people to be silenced. It's looking increasingly likely that much of the violence was committed by undercover cops attempting to spark violence so that they had a reason to deny the right to peaceful assembly to other citizens. I'm not happy or proud of that.
And yet there's the other side. Nobody died. The mechanisms in place for dealing with it are being activated. The media, both mainstream and citizen, is speaking out to condemn what happened and make sure that the stories of violent protests cunningly quashed do not win out over the truth of peaceful protesters abused. If we were already a police state, none of that would be happening. The fact that nobody is going to come knocking on my door to arrest me for joining a Facebook group asking for an inquiry is still something to celebrate.
I have no interest in the kind of patriotism that says others should be grateful for what they have here or should leave. To me, patriotism is a reason to seek to see clearer and improve what we've got - not rest on our laurels, complacent while others start to take it away.
I believe in the intrinsic good of people. I believe Canada has done as good a job as any country in the world at bringing that out in as many of its citizens as possible. I believe that my calling as a teacher is an integral part of that. I believe we have a responsibility to protect what we've built here and spread it peacefully, through a global exchange of ideas that respects many paths to the same end, learning from others as we go.
So: Happy Canada Day. May we enjoy what we have and work to make it better. May we teach our children that real citizens treat critical thought as a cornerstone of democracy.
There's been some bad this week. Police very near here treated essential liberties as privileges to be taken away at a whim. They treated journalists as people to be silenced. It's looking increasingly likely that much of the violence was committed by undercover cops attempting to spark violence so that they had a reason to deny the right to peaceful assembly to other citizens. I'm not happy or proud of that.
And yet there's the other side. Nobody died. The mechanisms in place for dealing with it are being activated. The media, both mainstream and citizen, is speaking out to condemn what happened and make sure that the stories of violent protests cunningly quashed do not win out over the truth of peaceful protesters abused. If we were already a police state, none of that would be happening. The fact that nobody is going to come knocking on my door to arrest me for joining a Facebook group asking for an inquiry is still something to celebrate.
I have no interest in the kind of patriotism that says others should be grateful for what they have here or should leave. To me, patriotism is a reason to seek to see clearer and improve what we've got - not rest on our laurels, complacent while others start to take it away.
I believe in the intrinsic good of people. I believe Canada has done as good a job as any country in the world at bringing that out in as many of its citizens as possible. I believe that my calling as a teacher is an integral part of that. I believe we have a responsibility to protect what we've built here and spread it peacefully, through a global exchange of ideas that respects many paths to the same end, learning from others as we go.
So: Happy Canada Day. May we enjoy what we have and work to make it better. May we teach our children that real citizens treat critical thought as a cornerstone of democracy.