Two statues, one male and one female, were visited by a genie and allowed to come to life for 30 minutes.
“What should we do?” the male statue excitedly asked the female statue.
The female statue turned to the male statue and said, “We’ll take turns. First you hold the pigeon down and I’ll do my business on its head!”
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Last week in Victoria, Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue was wrapped in foam, strapped to a flat-bed truck and placed in storage. Victoria councillors were not unanimous in this decision and the public wasn’t allowed to have a say in the matter.
However the public is asking if any major historical figures could pass the test of being judged on the basis of the values of the 21st century. There certainly are other historical figures at risk, like Sir Wilfrid Laurier who was an opponent of women’s suffrage. Fortunately the Ontario government has offered to display Sir John A’s statue on Ontario government property.
About the same time that John A. Macdonald was being whisked away, a 96-year-old Canadian holocaust survivor named Philip Riteman died. He had remained silent for over 40 years, but for the last 30 years of his life has issued a strong warning to the generations.
His words were: “Don’t hate, love. You don’t have to invite someone over for dinner, but don’t hate them. Don’t let this (holocaust experience) happen to generations to come. Remember evil is always allowed.”
He witnessed first hand how people, who had once been ordinary citizens and neighborhood children, became cruel supervisors at the concentration camps. And all because they had been placed in an environment where they were told what was evil, they believed it, and acted on what they believed.
“Make sure you don’t let yourself be brainwashed by anything. Think for yourself. You’re living in the best country on the planet.” This is the heart felt message Philip relayed to young people for the past three decades.
He spoke to generations who are growing up in an environment of intolerance and censorship. An environment where college campuses often block speakers from even being heard.
A talk show host said, “The notion of stifling people who disagree with you ultimately will degrade our society. I always thought college was a place for ideas and now it’s turned into a place for some ideas, but not others. It would be nice if colleges got back to this place of ideas regardless of what the ideas were.”
A recent Gallup poll of university students showed that students value inclusiveness and free speech, but when they had to choose, they valued an inclusive society over the constitutional right of free speech.
A city official in Victoria said that coming to city hall to work, and walking past the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, felt contradictory. It also feels contradictory to place inclusiveness on a pedestal while excluding ideas which certain groups find disagreeable.
Will our society be a better place after the statues have been removed, and intolerance and censorship eliminate any ideas that are deemed contrary to values dictated by a small percentage of Canadians?
The following bit of humor seems to be an appropriate conclusion.
A professor asks a grad student, “What’s your opinion on the current state of mathematical research?”
“Absolute rubbish!” the grad student replies.
“Well, probably,” says the professor, “but let’s hear it anyway.”
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