A while ago I received an angry e-mail from a Canadian reader who was upset with my blogging about American politics. I would direct her and all of my readers to my masthead: Musings from a Canadian liberal woman on the state of Canadian and US politics.
Beyond that though, she actually told me that as far as she was concerned I had no right to blog about US politics because I'm Canadian.
Wow.
I let her words roll around in my head for a few days to try to come up with a response but, in the end, since she had already said that she wasn't going to read my blog anymore, I decided not to bother. Why should I? How do you reply to someone who tells you that you have no right to freedom of speech?
Today, I ran across this post by a right-wing Canadian blogger who expresses the same sentiments.
It starts innocently enough:
Normally I don’t comment on American domestic politics. I don’t particularly understand Canadian blogs that do either. I just don’t see why should get my knickers in a twist about things that I have absolutely no control over. Do any of those blogs(helllooooo CC helloo Sourpuss seriously that all their faux outrage at whatever American mini scandal du jour actually makes a difference?
Well, perhaps if that blogger had been paying attention to the plight of a 9 year old Canadian boy and his Iranian family in US detention, which many Canadian bloggers took on as a cause, and the subsequent decision by the Canadian government to give them temporary Canadian residency permits so they can get out of that Texas hellhole, he/she might actually understand why we think we can and should try to make a difference.
Let's add that to the fact that:
Canadians are involved in a war in Afghanistan with our ally, the United States.
Our border security negotiations with the Bush administration are ongoing.
We're a signatory to NAFTA.
Members of our government are participating in secret meetings with American officials that they refuse to talk about.
We're a part of NORAD.
One of our citizens, Maher Arar, was sent to Syria to be tortured for no damn good reason.
Another one is in Gitmo and has been since age 15, where he claims he's been tortured as well.
I could go on...
I want to take you back to that blogger's post though where the next line is this:
The only thing important to Americans is other Americans. The sooner that some blogs learn that the better.
That's where that blogger's so-called concern is coming from. Xenophobia. And that's really all you need to know about that.
Since I don't belong to the xenophobic class, I'll keep blogging about whatever the hell I want to. I happen to actually know many Americans and guess what? They really are human beings who care about the world too. Imagine that!
And, anybody who thinks we're not joined at the hip with the US had better start paying attention.
One more thing for you canucks who actually are interested in what the US is up to: the US senate is debating the future of the Iraq war. You can watch it online at CSPAN.
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