First on the election: I’m certain that you’ve read it all. I have nothing to add except to say that the venom spewing from the Anglophone community in the aftermath of the PQ’s stunning defeat at the polls resulting from an even more stunning miscalculation which led Marois to call this election in the first place – yes, the depths to which some of we Anglos can sink – shocked me.
I wrote some awful things about Marois and her sidekicks Drainville and Lisee during the election campaign. Among other things in my Election Day poem/blog I called Marois a “whore” because I was trying to come up with a rhyme for the word “sure”; I also called her a “dingbat” and I plead poetic license in that case too.
However that was during the campaign. Now it’s over. I feel a little sorry for what Marois is going through right now – must be unbelievably heart-wrenching for the woman – no reason to pile on with attacks on her character and person, attacks which can only be described as cruel.
Attack the woman for the lack of judgement which led to her miscalculating the outcome when she called the actual election in the first place, sure, but, as Elvis sang, “Don’t be cruel.” Take her down for her ideas but keep the attacks on the principle level and stay away, as much as possible, from personal affronts. They do nothing to enhance one’s argument(s).
Some of the invective I’ve encountered in social media, radio, and t.v., has been particularly out of line. Calling someone’s policies “garbage” and referring to people as xenophobic, racist fascists is off the mark. This last comment may be an appropriate characterization of certain of the PQ’s policies but to generalize in so flippant a manner is both disrespectful and disturbing.
So keep things on a principle level and stay away from personal attacks. They are a turn off. Be gracious in victory.
Arlo Guthrie: “The New York State Freeway’s closed. The New York State Freeway’s closed. Isn’t that far out !!” If memory serves, a baby was born at Woodstock and nobody died although there were some serious mauvais trips caused by drug overdoses and some bad acid going around. The whole thing was truly amazing.
“Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of keys
Don’t touch my bags
If you please, Mr. Customs man.”
There’s a whole lotta smoking goin’ on in our featured video clip today. Arlo Guthrie’s distinctive singing voice wafts out over the huge Woodstock audience as numerous festival-goers and festivity-enjoyers party and smoke it up.
Imagine one million people “… Lotta freaks … Heh heh.”
Have a good day/evening.
Peace out.
2 responses to “JuicyLesson 183: Arlo Guthrie does “Marijuana” Before A Massive Audience at Woodstock … Also a Look at our Treatment of Good Old Pauline in the Wake of the PQ’s Stunning Election Defeat …”
Seriously, Jerry, I understand your point on the personal attacks on the Marois. No need to call people names. But in the case of racism and bigotry, I absolutely disagree. When someone leads a political party on a campaign of us and them, on a charter that is against everything a free society stands for, and attacks religious symbols just for the purpose of reelection, in my opinion, we have the right (and freedom) to tell her to choke on her policies before, during, and after an election. I commend those who fought hard against her and her zoo of bigotry with their words and actions. Letting her or anyone else off easy because we feel bad for what they must be going through? Absolutely not! That allows this ugly, ugly subject to keep popping it’s head back up. How far does it need to go before we shouldn’t feel bad? Should a Neo-nazi party be allowed to surface in Provincial politics before we stop feeling bad? We need to stop these kinds of ideas before they have any chance to progress that far.
Again, when you lead a party with ‘some’ of these ideas, you are those ideas. It’s not ‘generalizing’.
Those policies don’t belong in the garbage. My garbage can is too clean for such policies and would not accept the paper they are written on.
In terms of clarifying this comment: the person doesn’t mean to put me down – although it does appear that way because of this person’s grammar – for calling Marois names; what she/he is saying is that he/she agrees with me when I say in JL 183 that there is no need to call people names.
As for the rest of the comment, I stand by my opinion as stated in the aforementioned JuicyLessson. To compare the PQ’s policies to Neo-Nazism is a bit much, don’t you think?
All I am saying is that there is something to be said for striving to be dignified and to avoid name-calling even in the heat of a serious dispute. There is also something positive to be said for being sensitive to the trials and tribulations that others have to go through regardless of the reasons for this unhappy state of affairs. Just because we categorize Marois’ policies as being racist, is no reason for us to react in kind.