Kingston, Ontario… Canada’s first Capital until Ottawa was declared the new Capital just prior to the War of 1812. Parked on the shores of Lake Ontario at the most eastern end and across from the United States, Kingston lies between Toronto towards the west, Ottawa to the north and Montreal to the east. It’s home to Queen’s University, more penitentiaries that one can imagine, and Sir John A. MacDonald’s home, who was Canada’s first Prime Minister and an all-around cool guy. And for some odd reason I live here too. But that’s another story.
Imagine… a city with a population of roughly one hundred and twenty odd thousand and we get to have some homophobic cretin sending out threatening letters to a same-sex couple, describing how [they] will apparently shoot at the home and/or at the couple themselves using BB Guns – because as I quote from one of the ‘Letters’; “…in Canada, real guns are hard to find…”. Comforting thought.
The author(s) of the ‘Letters’ are brave enough (and slightly stupid) to mention that they have contacts at the Kingston Police Force (KPF) – ballsy stuff. Because I’m sure the Kingston cops love that kind of publicity.
The Global Free Press has covered and supported (among other things) Human Rights issues for people from around the world since 2006. Now I get to record this stupid story for prosperity sake making this the second time in seven years that I’ve written about something happening in this city, and it’s certainly not for a lack of topics; however there was no way that I was going to let this bullshit slip by without saying something.
The ‘Letter’ is a nothing short of a pile o’ crap, written by a similar entity and that’s where I’ll stop because we’ve all heard the public backlash for all the reasons why this sort of criminal activity is (for a lack of other clichés) a noxious weed that needs to be stopped in its tracks.
And I suppose I could write all the appropriate adjectives describing the callousness of the people behind the ‘Letters’, such as, “What a bunch of fucking idiots/morons/douche-bags/homophobic scum-sucking bastards!” But I won’t because that won’t make any difference since there are some of them in every town and one on every block.
What do we as a community say to people like this? Besides the obvious.
How do we change their minds and educate them into the twenty-first century? We don’t.
And what do we do with them? How does one punish ignorance? Jail? Just another place for them to spout their garbage.
Let’s face it people, your great-great grand kids might… might… have a chance to eliminate this sad side to humanity.
But why should humans start now? We’ve been at it for about three hundred thousand years, and the last fifty years we claim to be “civilized”.
Civilized? Watched the news lately?
People like the author(s) of these ‘Letters’ will always be around, along with all the others who don’t understand the concept of Human Rights.
In Canada, we do fairly well with the idea; some Canadians feel we’ve got a stronger selection of Human Rights than just about everyone else. Yeah… it’s a nice feeling.
The author(s) of the ‘Letters’ get to share these same Rights as outlined in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but fail to recognize that the same-sex couple in Kingston, and all of them across Canada, have the same Rights.
This is ignorance at its finest. You just can’t get any stupider. Per say.
So… what do we do with ignorant people? Perhaps it’s time for ‘society’ to deem such ignorant behaviour as a mental disability and not a criminal problem. Then we could try some good old-fashion lobotomies… or something similar… maybe…
Anyway, if it was a mental disorder, we, as a society, could understand that maybe some people ‘just can’t help themselves’ and need our assistance in comprehending the basics of Human Rights. That perhaps these poor ignorant people are missing important parts in their tiny brains.
We’ll call it HRD – Human Rights Disorder: The failure to comprehend Human Rights and to accept that people have the right to be free of stupidity, to live happily (whatever that may be), and to hang out with whomever they goddamn want to!
This is Canada – it’s what we do.
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