take 2 steps to the right and get out of the neighbourhood

grrr – i want so badly to write about the whole ward churchill controversy brewing in the united states over the last couple of days – you know, the one where right-wingers dredge up an article he wrote way back in 2001 and then scream about it? – but everytime i think about it, i falter in my ability to put together something that isn’t loaded with invective.

the part getting me most is not that people disagree with ward – diversity of opinion and all that – but the out and out hypocrisy of the american “free speech” right demanding that ward be silenced (either by being disallowed from speaking in new york, or fired from his teaching post at the university of colorado). it seems to me (from reading many articles and blog posts on this subject) that any semblance of “moderate” thought (and by this i don’t mean left-wing, but just centre) has fled from public life in the united states. from reading through the blogosphere, it also seems there is a growing trend of meanness that has entered into public dialogue in the us that wasn’t there before (or maybe these opinionated americans were always mean, but the internet allows them to share that with the world).

even stranger is that, although the rest of the world has noticed this dramatic shift to the right in the opinions of everyday us citizens and public officials alike – people in the us are completely unself-conscious about the fact that something has changed. (i know, i can hear my good lefty state-side friends reminding me that only half the people voted for bush – but really…… you don’t know how it looks from out here.. on the other side of the glass.)

this is not to say we don’t have right-wing voices here in canada – of course we do (witness the recent anti-gay marriage campaign by stephen harper for proof) – but i do feel that those voices are tempered by both a centre and a left on all the issues that are put out for debate. even when sunera thobani was under attack back in october 2001 for essentially the same reasons ward churchill is right now, there were at least some editorials and articles supporting her right to speak freely of her opinion.

i dunno – i don’t even know how to wrap this up except to say that i am frightened for where things are going, not just because the leaders of the us are up to no good, but because something nasty seems to have infected a big chunk of the population too – they revel in the deaths of people they have never met, and sue their closest friends out of some misguided notion of rights – i often wish we didn’t live right next door.