Dear Editor:
RE: Get over yourselves, March 10.
Before I get into the main points against your point of view involving the Freedom Convoy, I would like to lead with some information about myself that in this day in age may be unheard of.
Years ago I spoke of a local issue – that building the splashpad in Arthur shouldn’t be prioritized ahead of the wastewater plant in our small town. My point of view was that this would prevent young people gaining an income working at the pool during summer months. After seeing the benefits the splash-pad has provided – especially providing a free and safe source of fun for kids during the pandemic – I can admit that I was wrong.
Yes, I will say it – I was wrong. Something that is unheard of during these tense political times.
I feel that the Freedom Convoy is a monumental movement. Once we are demonized for not following political demands, it is not long before we are defending other human rights.
Saying this movement is not important in comparison to what is happening in Ukraine is extremely closed minded, and completely disregards individual challenges. Is a woman’s fight for equal pay in North America unimportant because in places like Dubai women have just recently gained the privilege of driving an automobile? To the LGBTQ+ supporter, is your freedom of choice still significant when openly homosexual individuals in Nigeria are being killed?
I have marched in a Black Lives Matter protest with my daughter, even though I do not agree with defunding the police. Using this same theory, is it not possible for me to believe in the freedom of choice in supporting the convoy while opposing the media’s narrative of a white supremacist movement?
We live in a very privileged country, but it is by no means perfect. If we as a community are content with our vaccination rate higher than 90%, we need to ask ourselves if we would have achieved that if jobs and livelihoods were not threatened for disobeying government orders.
If you think everything you see on television is told from a journalistic perspective and not advertising, you need to remove the blinders. The difference between propaganda and truth comes down to who is funding the narrative.
In conclusion, let’s all watch and listen with two eyes and two ears, and talk with one mouth.
I wanted to state my opinion because I am strong enough to speak it, but I also have the humility to admit I could be wrong. Only time will tell; I will get no satisfaction in saying “I told you so”.
Brandon ter Steege,
Arthur