September 12, 2001
I remember heading out with the dog that morning, still in a daze. I remember feeling, as someone else I was reading this morning put it, completely unmanned. I think that if I had found someone or something to get very angry at that morning, I would have done so. I wasn't looking for such a thing, it's just that that is what unmanned men do. The most dangerous men in the world are the ones who are weak and know they are. (That is what the men who committed the atrocity were.)
What I found instead was an American flag. It was hand made and posted in the window of a woman I know. That may not seem like an unusual thing but it was in this neighbourhood even on September 12, 2001. To the best of my knowledge, she and I were the only persons in the entire neighbourhood to express such overt support of the USA.
And I think what she did was much braver than my response. Everyone who knew me, already knew how I'd respond. Anyone who knew her would have expected the exact opposite. She was the sort of person who spoke of a decline of America with great enthusiasm before that horrible day ten years and a day ago today. Confronted with those events, she had suddenly seen there was something wrong with the views she usually expressed.
She was the only one to publicly show support but she wasn't the only one to suddenly feel uncomfortable about their past anti-Americanism. The people in my neighbourhood are almost all anti-American (university educated Canadians are overwhelmingly anti-American). Talking to them the next few days, I found that the conventional liberals and conventional conservatives, for the most part, remained reflexively anti-Americanism but were suddenly qualifying and explaining and acting guilty.
They reminded me of children with hatreds. You may seen this. A group of kids develop and nurse a hatred for some adult or other kid. And then something horrible happens to the object of their hatred and you get this sudden moment of clarity. Everyone has to decide whether they are going to grow up or whether they are going to bitterly cling to their childish hatred.
Anti-Americanism is like that in a country like Canada. It's the immature childish stance of many Canadians. It's not a game. People who are playing a game can drop it easily. It's something deep in their personalities. There was a moment after the attacks, however, when it became obvious that some were more self aware than others.
It didn't last. Within a few years, the war in Iraq gave everyone an excuse to slip back to the security of their former stances.
It's odd because Canada and the USA are not rivals. We couldn't be. For starters Canada is only one tenth the size of the USA. More importantly, however, Canada can only exist because of the USA. This is a country that has always owed its very existence to the protection of others. Historically, Canada has only been possible because France, Britain and then the USA were willing to protect it.
To take only the most obvious example, imagine how different Canada would be if we had to mount a credible defence of our borders? We'd have to spend a huge amount more than we currently do and that would eat into other spending. It is questionable whether the country would have it's current borders in the first place if we had had only our own credibility to defend the territory ourselves during the years the country grew.
Rather than face this, many Canadians choose instead to engage in the childish fantasy that the USA represents some sort of ominous threat to our very existence.
I remember heading out with the dog that morning, still in a daze. I remember feeling, as someone else I was reading this morning put it, completely unmanned. I think that if I had found someone or something to get very angry at that morning, I would have done so. I wasn't looking for such a thing, it's just that that is what unmanned men do. The most dangerous men in the world are the ones who are weak and know they are. (That is what the men who committed the atrocity were.)
What I found instead was an American flag. It was hand made and posted in the window of a woman I know. That may not seem like an unusual thing but it was in this neighbourhood even on September 12, 2001. To the best of my knowledge, she and I were the only persons in the entire neighbourhood to express such overt support of the USA.
And I think what she did was much braver than my response. Everyone who knew me, already knew how I'd respond. Anyone who knew her would have expected the exact opposite. She was the sort of person who spoke of a decline of America with great enthusiasm before that horrible day ten years and a day ago today. Confronted with those events, she had suddenly seen there was something wrong with the views she usually expressed.
She was the only one to publicly show support but she wasn't the only one to suddenly feel uncomfortable about their past anti-Americanism. The people in my neighbourhood are almost all anti-American (university educated Canadians are overwhelmingly anti-American). Talking to them the next few days, I found that the conventional liberals and conventional conservatives, for the most part, remained reflexively anti-Americanism but were suddenly qualifying and explaining and acting guilty.
They reminded me of children with hatreds. You may seen this. A group of kids develop and nurse a hatred for some adult or other kid. And then something horrible happens to the object of their hatred and you get this sudden moment of clarity. Everyone has to decide whether they are going to grow up or whether they are going to bitterly cling to their childish hatred.
Anti-Americanism is like that in a country like Canada. It's the immature childish stance of many Canadians. It's not a game. People who are playing a game can drop it easily. It's something deep in their personalities. There was a moment after the attacks, however, when it became obvious that some were more self aware than others.
It didn't last. Within a few years, the war in Iraq gave everyone an excuse to slip back to the security of their former stances.
It's odd because Canada and the USA are not rivals. We couldn't be. For starters Canada is only one tenth the size of the USA. More importantly, however, Canada can only exist because of the USA. This is a country that has always owed its very existence to the protection of others. Historically, Canada has only been possible because France, Britain and then the USA were willing to protect it.
To take only the most obvious example, imagine how different Canada would be if we had to mount a credible defence of our borders? We'd have to spend a huge amount more than we currently do and that would eat into other spending. It is questionable whether the country would have it's current borders in the first place if we had had only our own credibility to defend the territory ourselves during the years the country grew.
Rather than face this, many Canadians choose instead to engage in the childish fantasy that the USA represents some sort of ominous threat to our very existence.
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