LETTER

Who you calling a Yank? 

I was taken aback by the letter of response from Mr Lefebvre to Mr Stevens in the last issue. I can only assume he is an American!  This sort of blanket condemnation and painting everyone with the same brush is much too common a means of communicating down south. Obviously the letter writer is not “a leftist”, so how is it he feels so confident that he understands the mental workings and thoughts of “leftists”?  As you note, he is telling your readers what they should think, yet his biggest complaint seems to be that “leftists” tell others what to think. 

I propose we stop calling each other names and focus on the issues that divide us – not even trying to resolve those issues, just trying to understand what they are and what “the other side” seems to be thinking.  From there we can step ahead. We get nowhere at all by calling names, except some release of stress and frustration. And that is my big question, not if the Right or the Left are correct – but why is there so much frustration in political discourse these days?  Are there suddenly bigger consequences to our labels?

Calling Mr Lefebvre an American is tongue-in-cheek. My point is that our political system has not become calcified into such hard lines as the US, and lets keep it that way – but at least understanding the other sides, and not assuming we know everything before the discussion even starts. How about it, Mr Lefebvre, a cup of tea, not a fistful of mud?

Andy Black, 

Aylmer nord