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Pique n' Your Interest

Do the world a favour and spread the love

Since Canada’s closest neighbour decided to re-elect Mr. Bush I have read and seen a lot from U.S. citizens that suggests many of them are having trouble understanding why a lot of people in other countries don’t like them. We’ve had some local examples of this in Whistler.

Two weeks ago a gentleman from North Carolina sent a fairly inflammatory letter to the Pique suggesting that he wouldn’t be visiting Whistler this year because he was sick of reading and hearing about anti-U.S. sentiment. I found this letter to be quite amusing and also slightly disturbing, because it is one thing to re-elect a president, but it’s another thing to disrespect the rights of other people who might disagree with this decision.

The fact is Americans have done a lot of good for the human race, but despite their best efforts, humans often get things wrong.

Vietnam, for instance.

I went to Vietnam five years ago for a short time and in that short time it became blatantly obvious to me that the U.S. accomplished nothing by invading Vietnam. The only people who would have benefited from Vietnam were the military suppliers, because war is big business.

Vietnam is still a Communist country. It was a war over an ideology but nothing changed – and yet thousands of U.S. soldiers died and millions of Vietnamese were killed. The forests in the demilitarized zone still haven’t grown back after all the Agent Orange U.S. warplanes dropped.

The anniversary of JFK’s assassination was last week; that was another bad mistake. Who did what on that fateful day is still a mystery, but blame aside, it was a horrific mistake.

A big part of correcting any mistake is accepting that you could be wrong, but an even more important part of any argument is understanding, or at least making an effort to hear, the other side’s argument before you move on.

To demonstrate that some Americans perhaps haven’t taken enough time to understand the other side’s argument, I will share with you a letter from a politically active friend of mine in the U.S. She is a devout Catholic, who doesn’t normally swear, and a former chief advisor to one of the most successful mayors in Northern America. She lives in Pennsylvania, one of the "swing" states, and is a stereotypical Italian-American that’s extremely good at telling it straight...

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Dear Adam,

The Republican Party has managed to brainwash the Christian Right (zealots). They put the gay marriage amendment on 11 ballots in the South assuring that these religious nuts would come out big-time.

This is a major problem in the U.S. right now.

Until the moderate Republicans fight back and reclaim their party, we are in deep shit. The Dems have to regroup/rethink and work in the western states to tip the balance.

However, I believe and perhaps it will be proven at some point, that there was election fraud in both Florida and Ohio. Our state voted 70 per cent for Kerry! We are proud. But, folks here are enraged! We are keeping our group together and we are going to continue to fight, starting NOW. The assholes that were duped are going to wake up sometime soon and be shocked at what they did.

There is a growing closeness between church/state here that is dangerous. We are fighting this. I had fights with 4 priests over this and am going to see my Bishop SOON.

Many Catholics are not going to support the church and some have already resigned. It is a real mess. I am trying to recover but it is hard. I can’t stand to see that smirking, lying son of a bitch so I turn off the news.

Many feel as I do. We are divided down the middle here and this isn't good for a democracy.

Oh, well, I keep praying for peace and for unity in my own country.

Stay connected....

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You might also be interested to know that in the three years I’ve been travelling I’ve never met an American who really liked Mr. Bush.

Most Americans you meet on the road are educated and are interested to know how the rest of the world works.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of U.S. citizens don’t travel (about 80 per cent). Many of them don’t go and see what wonders lie outside of their borders and they don’t make an effort to understand why millions of people outside of the U.S. disagree with their actions.

One example of this is the issue of gay marriage. This topic is one that doesn't sit well with man people and is therefore, a controversial issue.

But despite the controversy, several Canadian provinces have been embracing the concept. Ontario, B.C., Quebec, Manitoba, the Yukon, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan have now legalized gay marriage.

So there’s one major difference between Canada and the U.S. There are hundreds more.

The fact that there are a growing number of political differences between Canada and the U.S. raises several rather prickly points for residents and tourist operators who will brush shoulders with thousands of U.S. citizens this season.

But doesn’t it really come down to a simple choice? Do we make an effort to understand our differences, find a way to communicate and maybe try to spread some love, or do we get mad and act all prejudicial?

The choice is an individual one, but I do know which one will bring more tourists back to Whistler.