I'd like to finish what I started this morning, and I hope you don't consider it to be of interest to Southern Ontario residents only.
The Local section of the Record contains story about how Kerry Townson and Stephen Lock, members of the local Families of Canadian Soldiers in Afghanistan, will formally ask city councillors in Waterloo and Cambridge to consider allowing yellow ribbons on municipal vehicles. (For link, click More Local - Group will try to get councils on-board with yellow ribbons.)
...Waterloo Region has decided against adding the ribbons to its ambulances and police cruisers citing fairness and a policy which prohibits proclamations for any one group.
Lock doesn't buy the argument that placing ribbons on public vehicles to support Canadian troops then compels public officials to display stickers from any community group that asks.
Soldiers like his son, Corporal Christopher Lock, are representing the nation as a whole, not a special interest group.
"They are doing a job on behalf of Canada. This is a job that Canada is involved in," he said.
"We're all on the same team. The soldiers are leading the team. It's a very difficult job in very difficult circumstances on behalf of the country."
Waterloo Fire Chief John de Hooge said yesterday the fire service in that city supports the idea, but the ultimate decision on whether or not their trucks will display the ribbons will rest with city council.
Earlier this week, Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr said he supported the Region's decision, adding he wouldn't want to impose a position on city employees.
However, responding to a letter from one of the members of the support group yesterday, Zehr said he would address the issue next week, polling councillors via e-mail...
(Sidenote to Mayor Zehr - These folks have their kids' lives on the line. Can't you please just step out of your comfort zone a tiny bit here?)
The article also gives valuable information regarding how to obtain Support Our Troops ribbon car magnets.
So here's the question: What do you think? Do you agree that municipal and regional vehicles should remain decal-free or should the employees at least be allowed the option of using the decals? What is the rest of the country doing? This is obviously a politically-correct hot potato in Southern Ontario.
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Speaking of yellow politicians, here's a great post from Raphael - What can be said about Jack Layton that hasn't already been said?
Troops need your support - Joe Warmington (Toronto Sun)
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14 comments:
We, as a nation, are certainly unworthy of the devotion and duties our soldiers carry for us.
JC - I agree.
It should be an individual choice to put the ribbons on vehicles, public and private. I personally don't have one on mine, but we certainly should not prohibit them from use. I prefer to vote for people who will equip the military appropriately as my statement of support.
I had dinner the other night with a young lad who will be going to Afstan in February. He is proud of what he does and he is working very hard to be ready. His parents are very worried but his older step brother has been there twice. Every time I hear of casualties my heart does a huge flutter and I wait for the names I might know.
BUT, I also think of the coward who tried to flee the mosque in Pakistan in a burkqua (sp) and I think of the young women that were "protected" by the Taliban and slattered in a stadium. I am sick at the comments by Taliban Jack-ass and his band of deniers.
Freedom is NOT Free!!
West Coast Teddi
Freedom is NOT Free!!
Absolutely.
If the greatness of life is measured in deeds done for others, then Canada's sons and daughters who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan stand among the greatest of their generation," Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan
BTW, direct Record link here to article about Families of Canadian Soldiers in Afghanistan.
I prefer to vote for people who will equip the military appropriately as my statement of support.
Excellent point.
Thanks for the link. By the way, I can never say that line "freedom isn't free" without thinking of Team America now. Damn Trey Parker and Matt Stone... lol
Thankfully I missed that one. ;)
TangoJuliette sez:
The political hacks who consider the bond of that which was once known as the "Brotherhood of Front-Line Fighters" (*), to be something unworthy of support, fortunately do eventually have to run for office again. Remember that!!
BTW:(*)What is the politically correct and acceptable version of this phrase today? Might I suggest : "The lifeblood-forged bond of comeraderie of those unique and special indivivuals who daily, in sacrifice, offer up their lives on those ever-dangerous front-lines of community and national service, so that we of the weaker persuasion, we of the morally-, physically-, ethically-challenged, and mentally unstrong and not at all mentally and emotionally prepared for the challenges, might not ever have to answer that call to service ourselves."
Earlier this week, Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr said he supported the Region's decision.
Carl Zehr is nothing but a toady of the Liberal (Fed & Prov) Machine, waiting to run at succeeding Redman or Telegdi, or trying to unseat a local conservative MP.
It stands to reason, of course, that he'd be the craven one to come up with that priceless line in this news item:...Earlier this week, Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr said he supported the Region's decision, adding he "wouldn't want to impose a position on city employees."
What position specifically does the Mayor consider might be "an imposition on city employees?"
And what position exactly does "His Worship" think that he and his lily-livered sell-out pals are imposing on the rest of the tax-paying, voting citizens of his town and region?
Boy! Talk about reeking of the concept of Liberal entitlement (a.k.a. le droit de seigneur,) or what?
Do any of these vehicles and or personnel sport a Canadian Flag? Do any of the municipal and regional vehicles sport any labels related to the unionized workers and operators of said vehicle? Do any of the public transit vehicles sport decals which acknowledge the contributions of the provincial government to the upkeep and operation of said vehicles?
When did it become offensive to support our sons and daughters, dispatched by us, to serve on distant fields, constantly in harm`s way, on the international stage? Did this shift in thinking come around, sometime shortly after January 2006, d'you think?
Carl! Lemme sorta paraphrase Paul Martin trying to skewer Steve Harper, during one of the 2004 or 2005 debates: CARL! DO YOU LOVE CANADA? CARL! DO YOU LOVE THE SERVICE MEN AND SERVICE WOMEN OF CANADA? If you do, quit playing to the leftist toadies in your little town! For once, be a mensch! Grow yourself a pair, man-up and do the right thing!
no guts no glory.
TICK -TOCK!!
tj
Excellent comment, TJ. Thanks.
I believe I've used this quote here before but it bears repeating...
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." ~John Stuart Mill, English economist & philosopher (1806 - 1873)
Mill wrote this as part of an essay discussing the American Revolution but his words resonate...
The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
Yes, it certainly does still hold true today. Thanks for that, Mac.
My pleasure, Jo.
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