Letter to the Editor:
After reading Anne Kearsley’s letter in your recent issue, I did, indeed, hang my head for being so slow to respond to Mr. Yin’s report of harassment on the streets of Wiarton. Someone said on CBC today ” Silence is complicity”.
Racism, along with several other ‘isms’, constitute a worse pandemic than any sickness we might be able to treat by physical and researched means.
What are the causes? What are the treatments? How does one communicate with irrational feelings? Not with reason. With reaching words? Music? Art?
Also, on CBC today the statement was made that it isn’t a matter of how people feel, it’s a matter of Power. Power. The deepest weakness of our species. The thirst for which got us kicked out of The Garden. But power needs to feel there’s something behind it. Did that woman on her bike with the 2 kids (hers?) following, believe that many people agreed with her?
That’s the problem with politicians giving voice to unacceptable prejudice. It seems to give permission for this ugliness to crawl out of the woodwork. Maybe that’s best anyway, to have it out where it can be stomped on.
This lockdown is giving us the chance to think about many things. CBC is sharing the directions we’re exploring. Maybe that was the purpose of this pandemic, to stop us in our tracks and give us the chance to – recalculate.
In Faith we’ll use this time,
Bev Sawyer
