Re: Former Catholic school trustee appeals disqualification over actions after Nazi, Pride post and Letter: Disgusted by Catholic school board behaviour regarding Nazi, Pride post
It seems to me that some individuals don’t want to be held accountable for their words and for their actions.
Bottom line: Ms. Monique LaGrange lost her job with the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools board because she “supposedly “ implied in her Facebook account that gay children were the same as Nazis children. Words matter. Truth matters.
Over the past 2,000-plus years some folks have used their religious and political beliefs to persecute people they feared or disliked.
In my letter of Nov. 19, 2023, “Who will become the next target of haters”, I said I had concerns when people use their religious and political beliefs to justify their actions against other people.
Black and Indigenous folks were segregated (apartheid) or enslaved because they were deemed inferior to white folks. Japanese-Americans were sent to concentration camps during the Second World War because they “might” aid Japan.
Were thousands of German-Americans or Italian-Americans sent to concentration camps during the Second World War? After all, Germany, Italy and Japan were our enemies during the Second World War.
Fearmongers and zealots (haters) persecuted Irish-Catholics (1850s-1880s). They also attacked Mormons in the late 1800s, forcing Mormons to flee to what is now the state of Utah.
They also persecuted Chinese immigrants (1890s to the early 1900s - “The Yellow Peril”). They massacred hundreds of black people in the Tulsa Massacre (in Oklahoma) of 1921, and the KKK and its racist supporters killed thousands of black folks, men, women and children, from the 1870s to the 1960s.
From the 1500s to 1900, thousands of Indigenous peoples were massacred or enslaved.
Oops! I forgot! The “woke” folks don’t want their children to know about such things. They want such topics censored or banned in the schools. They want us to see the world through “rose-coloured glasses," and pretend such events never happened.
Let’s not forget the sectarian violence between Protestants and Catholics in the religious wars in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Or the violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Or the Muslims, Jews and Muslims attacking and killing each other for the past 2,000 years in the Holy Land.
Or Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims attacking each other in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, demeaning and persecuting gays has become the “flavour of the day” for the bigots and the racists (haters), and they continue to attack Jews, Muslims, women, Asians, Indigenous peoples, migrant and immigrants.
So, who will become the next target for haters? The language (rhetoric) basically stays the same: Use misinformation and conspiracy theories to spread fear and hatred.
Unscrupulous politicians and religious zealots have been using fear mongering to justify the mistreatment and persecution of other people for thousands of years.
I find the comment by the writer from Innisfail ironic when he said, “As Christians we are called to love all people regardless. We don’t judge."
So, calling gays “perverts” is not judging? Associating gays with Nazis is not judging?
Have some folks forgotten the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would like them do unto you?
How about the words from the song O Holy Night? “Truly, He taught us to love one another. His law is love and his Gospel is peace. In his name all oppression shall cease”.
From his song Old Dogs Children and Watermelon Wine, Tom T. Hall sings, “God bless the children while they’re still too young to hate”.
As Mark Twain said, “Always do right. It will gratify some and astonish the rest."
George Thatcher,
Olds
