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ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS HERALD |
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BEARING A LETTER FROM CANADA A “hate e-mail” has poured into my mailbox in response to my recent article, “The Greatness of Being Canadian” (1). I often get letters, but this one was in a class by itself. It will be useful to review it. The writer, Andrew Mann, implies that he is Canadian. Here is a slightly edited text of his July 18 note. (His points numbered for reference.) 1. Wow, I read your article and boy oh boy am I ever doubly glad that my great grandfather got the hell out of the US. 2. The attitude that War [is] for any reason other than to kill other humans and make a great deal of $$$ off of it, both of which the US does exceptionally well, is pure self delusion… 3. You look down on pacifists, Gandhi was a pacifist and he was able to free a country of 400 million from the British empire without a war. 4. …your Bush government and complete idiotic fools such as yourself…really think that the way to make the world a safe place is to kill and destroy…in the name of protection. 5. You complete simpleton, we do not need your protection, nobody is blowing up our buildings because we are not all over the world trying to steal other countries oil and economies all in the name of ‘peace’…Take your protection and p*** off and Canada will be all the happier… Andrew MannFirst, I appreciate all readers – not just those who agree with me. You never know when a column might change a heart or mind. So I do thank Mr. Mann for reading and responding, his personalized denunciations nothwithstanding. Right away I see common ground in Point #1. Mr. Mann is “doubly glad” his great-grandfather left the USA. Wow, so am I. In fact, I am triplyglad. Had he not left, we should have even more left-wing crazies here than we do now. His grandpa did us a service. As to Point #2, let’s stipulate that war is nasty. But he’s wrong – no one wants war (not even Americans). Drinking margaritas by the pool and watching the kiddies splash is much preferable to visiting somber places like Arlington or Normandy where fields of crosses commemorate thousands of young men whose futures were blasted by war. Mr. Mann won’t believe it, but I hate war. It’s ugly, mindless and sordid. It creates horrible suffering. Its cost is dreadful. I don’t want my grandchildren fighting in wars. But hating war is different than forswearing it completely. We don’t want war, but sometimes war demands our attendance. In the 20th century the rampant march of evil compelled the USA and Canada to take up arms in a great struggle “for Christian civilization”, as Winston Churchill said. (Would any politician dare to say that today?) Failure to defy and crush Nazism and Japanese militarism could have had deadly consequences for North Americans. Ditto for Islamo-fascism today. 55 million died in World War II. Was it worth it? Well, how much is freedom really worth? Ask the Europeans, Africans and Asians we freed from enslavement. Mr. Mann says nothing of this – nor of today’s Iraqi people, freed from the iron grip of Saddam Hussein and his depraved sons to form the first democratic republic in their history. In the previous article I twitted Canadians for viewing war more positively when we were all fighting for “England, home and beauty”. But I wasn’t belittling it. We were fighting to keep the last lamp of Europe (and possibly the world) lit. North America could not let the Old World fall to Evil’s dominion. No one wanted the war, but we fought it with a grim resolve that enabled victory. Canadian soldiers died storming Juno Beach and Montecassino. In Mr. Mann’s calculus, nothing is worth war’s cost, and pain. He believes war is only about killing and money, and that we are profiting from the current war – a claim that is beyond bizarre. (Reminds me of those nuts who believe the moon landings were faked.) Wars enrich only non-participants. War-industry workers might gain, but the nation, as a whole, does not. Neutral countries – e.g., Switzerland and Sweden, during both world wars – do very well, but warring nations incur only huge debts. France and Britain were impoverished by the world wars. WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the 50-year Cold War cost us some $1.4 trillion. The 9-11 attacks cost hundreds of billions, and we have spent nearly another trillion in Afghanistan and Iraq. Canadians ducked those recent costs. They can scoff, but I know a goldbrick when I see one. I agree that Ghandi accomplished much with non-violence. Did he “free” India? Well, not exactly. British politicians had promised India independence if she helped defeat Hitler. After the war Ghandi concentrated on Indian societal dynamics. Fortunately, he was dealing with the British Empire – not Hitler, Tojo or Stalin who would have imprisoned or shot him. The British – though sometimes irritated by Ghandi’s activities – largely left him alone. He was assassinated by one of his own people – a Hindu fanatic who could not forgive Ghandi’s insistence that Muslims and Hindus had equal value and no one was better than anyone else. As to Point #4 – does Mr. Mann think Canadians are also “complete idiotic fools” for fighting violent crime in their own communities and imprisoning (and sometimes killing) criminals. He might say, “that’s different.” But is it? Aren’t we all trying to make our lives safer by defeating evil? Or does Mr. Mann think thugs can be “talked” into niceness the same way he believes Saddam, Osama, and other Islamist terrorists can be Quakerized? Point #5 repeats the Grand Theme: Canadians don’t fear terrorism because they are the nice people. (What about the 17 terrorists arrested for plotting violence against Canada? Did they miss the memo?) Mr. Mann thinks the USA is the Problem. If we all just sat down together and talked things out – or hid and pretended that hooded thugs weren’t sawing off heads and crashing planes into buildings – the violence and killing would stop. Don’t we realize we’re just enraging the Arab Street by opposing universal sharia? (Can’t we all just surrender?) Mr. Mann mentions “self-delusion”. The uniquely Canadian variety resembles the strange case of filmmaker and author Timothy Treadwell who lived out in the wild with grizzly bears for 13 years. He hung out and rapped with the bears, filmed them, and “befriended” them. He felt their pain. He thought he had made a breakthrough between humans and animals. Unfortunately, he was wrong (deluded, actually). One night an unreformed bear killed and ate Dr. Treadwell and his girlfriend as they slept. Evidently the bears were merely keeping their pet humans fresh – on the hoof, as it were – until a tasty midnight snack was wanted. Something like this could be Canada’s fate unless its people regain their historic character and stand up to evil. Fortunately, things might be turning around there. In January, Canada elected a conservative plurality which allowed Prime Minister Stephen Harper to form a new government. It’s not a majority, but it is a ray of hope. Should people like Mr. Mann gain control, however, a dangerous future will loom. The Islamo-fascists will tolerate Canada while she remains a useful “wedge” in the North American alliance. Once she becomes isolated from us, the Dark Forces will swoop in at an unexpected moment and devour her. No one will hear her screams. ******* (1) “The Greatness of Being Canadian”; Atlantic Highlands Herald, 2 February 2006. http://www.ahherald.com/atlarge/2006/060202_canadian.htm
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