In Memory of Happier and Sadder Anniversaries

[dewline]

I remember where I was on that day in 2001: here, with family. It caught us all by some degree of surprise.

Some of my thoughts last year at this time still hold. I invite you re-read that commentary.

I note also the anniversary of a great achievement in Canadian space exploration from 2006 with some joy. I would prefer to focus upon such anniversaries as that, and of the birthdays of friends, whether long dead or still with us.

As for "Reverend" Terry Jones and his announced plans?

Sir, your plans are not in any way holy. They are not just. They are not honourable.

They are not Godly.

If as claimed on CBC News today, they've been called off, then I thank you for your finding some degree of wisdom.

For those who've announced plans to go through with their own book-burnings anyway, whatever Jones does or doesn't do? You've earned my contempt. Especially if you carry through.

Moving on to other things now...

Comments

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

I too commented on that -- in my APAplexy contrib. My summary read:

Welcome to Anglophone North American politics, where outrageous comments and muckraking seem to be normal, but civility and sanity are derided as being for “wimps.” Much though it would be nice to ignore the circus-like atmosphere, we had better not turn our backs. Many governments, inspired by a paternalistic “neo-conservative” belief, are enacting laws that will soon erase our freedoms and rights if they are not stopped. Worse, some governments are trying to enact by treaty (or “Order-in-Council” decree) what they could not get accepted via conventional methods. The B.C. Provincial government’s recent enactment of their “harmonized” tax law (which should have been passed as a Legislature/Assembly bill, not as an “Order-in-Council” decree) is a particularly odious example of this last kind of behaviour. It was with this specific action in mind that I advised a Vancouver friend of mine to consider a re-run of the “Boston Tea Party” into Vancouver harbour. Taxation without representation, anyone?

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Seeing as we may yet see a federal election within a matter of months, you may want to put that suggestion on hold for a while yet.