The cancer in our society

I was reading some followup news on the CBC website about the shooting on the Texas military base. Out of curiousity I started browsing through some the reader comments left behind. I was horrified when I read a comment left by user "newstome":

One has to wonder how many messages we need to receive or how many shots across our bow before we realize we are in world war III. A war that has implanted the enemy not in army over there but in every day types over here. The enemy force is in all nations and like they do over there they hide behind our women and children and the women and children of their own who are honest, hard working and amongst us as well.

We need to weed this cancer out of our society. We can't use extreme means to do it or we come down to their level but we have to start with identifying them and isolating them. That doesn't mean concentration camps what it means is that the general public at large must be made aware of who they are and where they are. They must be restricted from holding sensitive jobs like government or law enforcement. What comes to mind is an RCMP officer whose beliefs outweigh the traditions of Canada and insists on wearing a turban. I'm sorry but that's an indicator and that is not our RCMP uniform. If they feel that strongly they should be clerics but certainly not our “first line of defense”.

Sooner or later we have to wake up to the fact that there is a problem to be dealt with. Do we wait till buildings in one of our cities topple or do we take a stand now. Tamals are a prime example, deport those from the boat immediately and charge any that demonstrate with inciting a riot. Hear that McQuinty, do your job!

I find it so hard to understand how people can think like this. With all the diversity here in Canada, how can someone think things like this?! I was especially bothered by their suggestion to restrict and isolate them.

One thing I have always been proud of in Canada is how immigrants can come here and succeed. You can't deny that there are problems - e.g. We have all kinds of qualified professionals who move here but their credentials are not recognized and so they end up working as taxi drivers, etc. But they work so hard for their own children and then the kids are able to outstrip the "Canadian" kids in education and everything else.

I love that Canadians accept and embrace the multicultral aspect of our country. I think that the fact that someone can move here and maintain their own culture is a sign of our own strength and self-belief. (Although, after saying that, it makes you wonder about the sovereign Quebec movement...)

So when I hear stuff like the bigoted language above and how they try to make themselves sound righteous it terrifies me! E.g. "We can't use extreme means to do it or we come down to their level but we have to start with identifying them and isolating them." Hello?! Isolation is NOT the answer! We need to open communications so that we can understand our differences and be willing to compromise. Obviously this won't work with extremists, but the majority of the world are NOT extreme! And the fact that this individual is talking about targetting people in CANADA is even worse! It's revolting that they're trying to claim that they're better than the extremists because they're not sinking to "their level" - yeah, like your idea is any different. Death by suicide bomb or social death by ostracization. Not much difference in terms of karma I think.

Can't they understand that their ideas are wrong??? Canada has done this in the past! Isolating the Japanese during WWII did nothing to protect us! At least back then we had the excuse that racism was still partially acceptable and that the Japanese were on the opposite side of the war... But haven't we learned better?

I think the thing that set me off the most about this article was the comment about how RCMP officers should not be allowed to wear their turban. And the mountie uniform is just that - a uniform! Ugh. I am beyond proud that we can and do allow them to express themselves religiously. It's not hurting you so shut up about it!

I'm too flabbergasted by this comment to be more articulate. It's even worse because the user's profile indicates that they live in Peterborough, so it's not like they have the excuse of living in a small town! Can we ask McGuinty (the loser didn't even know how to spell his name right) to deport all the racists instead? Or would the worse punishment be to make them stay and force them to see how much more enlightened the rest of us are?

Whatever the answers may be, the person got their diagnosis wrong. Muslims and Middle-Eastern people are not the cancer in our society. Its the hate that racists spread that is the true cancer.