I am thoroughly disgusted.
They have the nerve to call draft-dodging cowards courageous. Courageous. I feel like this at least should make some people on the left feel a little ashamed, but it won't.
"Historians, and critics of American policy", aren't those the same thing once you leave our borders? Oh, and while I'm fuming here, what the hell does CURRENT foreign policy have to do with a war that ended over twenty years ago?
One more thing before I go.
Since when is "war resister" synonymous with running like a girl for the border?
Draft-dodger memorial to be built in B.C.
Last Updated Wed, 08 Sep 2004 11:27:18 EDT
NELSON, B.C. - B.C. activists plan to erect a bronze sculpture honouring
draft dodgers, four decades after Americans opposed to the Vietnam War sought
refuge in Canada.
The memorial, created by artists in Nelson, B.C., ties
into a two-day celebration planned for July 2006 that pays tribute to as many as
125,000 Americans who fled to Canada between 1964 and 1977."This will mark the courageous legacy of
Vietnam War resisters and the Canadians who helped them resettle in this country
during that tumultuous era," Isaac Romano, the director of the Our Way Home
festival told a news conference in Nelson Tuesday.
The event will honour
people who came to Canada and resisted war efforts, from burning their draft
cards during the Vietnam War to leaving the army to protest the war in Iraq,
Romano said.
Musicians many of who participated in the anti-war movement
will play at the festival, scheduled for July 8-9, 2006. Historians and critics
of U.S. foreign policy will speak and a documentary about American war resisters
by director Michelle Mason will be screened.
Estimates of the number of
Americans who came to Canada because they opposed the Vietnam War range from
50,000 to 125,000.
They sought refuge in Canada between 1964 and 1977 in one
of the biggest political exoduses in U.S. history.
The first wave of Vietnam
era immigrants, called "draft dodgers," was largely middle class and educated.
Deserters from the army came later, mostly with little education or money.
Many of the war resisters settled in British Columbia, especially in the
Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the West Kootenay, the B.C. Interior region
where Nelson is located.
Thousands returned south after President Jimmy
Carter granted them amnesty in 1977, but the 1986 census indicated that half
stayed in Canada.
2 Comments:
Please tell me this is a joke. A very unfunny joke, but a joke nonetheless.
Methinks it's not, and therefore the violent meter is rising. As are the words of reverse blessing.
sorry, i'm gone
I hope that people, both American and Canadian, realize that not all the citizens of Nelson are in support of these actions. I feel that all the people of Nelson have been painted with the same brush when come to this issue. There were many people unaware of these plans until it aired on the news and appeared in the local newspapers. I am proud to call Nelson my home. It is a beautiful and wonderful place to grow up in. Many of the angry letters and e-mails sent to the local officials have been published in the paper. I understand that many people feel deeply hurt by the idea of honoring the draft dodgers, but I don't believe it is an excuse for writing hateful comments directed to the people of Nelson and even Canadians in general. If people don't want to visit Nelson because of the small group of people organizing this festival, then that is their choice and right. I'm not saying that I agree with the festival and monument, but I don't agree with all the hateful comments.
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