The irony does not escape us.
On our front page of this week's paper we have two photos that symbolize the respect for those who died fighting for our freedom. Below those photos we have a story about people who not only do not respect freedom but work to deny certain people freedom, and deny them dignity and respect.
We’d like to believe that the white supremacists are such a small minority in our community and our country that they almost don’t deserve any attention. But we also know that to ignore them or to pretend that they do not call to the fears and hate in our society is to deny that history can and does repeat itself.
Last week, 60,000 neo-Nazis held a march in Poland. Not that long ago white supremacists holding tiki torches marched, without masks, calling for bloodshed in a U.S. city. In Canada, we haven’t seen mass marches of neo-Nazis, but we have seen politicians capitalize on similar sentiments – politicians who have seen that fuelling divisions can gain them followers.
U.S. President Donald Trump is a master of fuelling fear, isolation and distrust of others. He has no qualms about fuelling the worst in people to create chaos. His short-term success will have terrible long-term consequences for his country and others.
Hate groups and cynical politicians feed on isolation, fear and economic hopelessness.
It often seems so much easier to blame the “others” for perceived inequities in our institutions and systems.
After all, it’s a whole lot easier to blame folks who don’t look like us, sound like us, pray like us or dress like us than it is to look in a mirror.
White supremacists know they can tap into longstanding fears and turn them into hate.
They are not wrong.
What they are wrong about is that most folks know that what veterans, social activists and true political leaders fought for in Canada is not the right to hate others, but the right to be free from such hatred and free from those who oppress others.
The fight for freedom may not be with guns on the battlefield today.
But there is no question that the fight to keep our freedoms and protect the rights of others from hate is still a battle worth fighting.
