I am not gay. I am not trans. So, there's a lot to the weight of this story that I will never get. But I am a human being and I trust, a thinking one who rejects the Mad Max meets Hunger Games collectivist dystopia that Canada is becoming. And, as a cheerleader for this brave new world Sid Seixeiro should be fired..On Tuesday night Ivan Provorov of the Philadelphia Flyers chose not to go out for the pre-game warm-up in which his teammates sported the rainbow on their jerseys and hockey sticks. When reporters asked for an explanation, he said that he is Russian Orthodox and he wants to stay true to himself..The next morning on state-sponsored Breakfast television out of Toronto, Sid Seixeiro chose to moralize with what has become all-too-typical over-the-top moral ardor and righteous indignation, cloaked as bravery and conviction, all the while costing him nothing. He said he had never heard such hate. He said that it was scary that Provorov was doing anything out of religious conviction (the mind immediately goes to Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa along with, well, Canadian medicare and pretty much every food bank and soup kitchen ever started in this country.) He said that the Flyers, who chose to fly the flags in the first place, should be fined a million dollars and that the NHL needs to get its act right.. Sid SeixeiroSid Seixeiro .There are enough reasons here alone to call for Sid's resignation. Breakfast television, as owned by Rogers, is supported by taxpayer bailout dollars and should not be a vehicle to spew hate. Who is more at risk after the incident, gay and trans people or Provorov? Sid comes dangerously close to calling for violence against this religious man who is also Russian: a minority in our country. Are religious young Russians who choose not to support the political agenda around gay and trans rights a little more fearful after Sid's rant? Perhaps. Again, my tax dollars should not be used to foment hate..But it is Seixeiro's perpetuating of a lie that is the worst. The lie is that by kneeling during the national anthem, by blacking out my social media screen, by wearing an orange shirt, a pink shirt, a ribbon, and by declaring this and that for whatever state and corporate EDI-sponsored call to action that bids me sing their song, do their dance, declare their pronouns, we are actually doing something meaningful—something akin to listening to the story of and helping that young boy who finds himself shoved into his locker again, taunted in the change-room, wondering if he'll ever be loved, or barred from seeing his loved one in intensive care. They are not the same and its time we stop the pretence..The constant call to declare, declare, declare simply turns us not into real friends and fellow-journeyers on what is a tough trip, but rather into lemmings and sheep who follow the state and its sponsored media wherever they lead. For all the flag waving we are not better people who have grown to actually care and act on behalf of others who find themselves unfairly on the fringe..Frankly, what I think makes Sid and his ilk so increasingly angry is when individuals today deign to stick their necks out, show real risk, and choose to act out of conviction against the narrative, whether it be on what war we should fight, what jab to take, or simply what not to declare.
I am not gay. I am not trans. So, there's a lot to the weight of this story that I will never get. But I am a human being and I trust, a thinking one who rejects the Mad Max meets Hunger Games collectivist dystopia that Canada is becoming. And, as a cheerleader for this brave new world Sid Seixeiro should be fired..On Tuesday night Ivan Provorov of the Philadelphia Flyers chose not to go out for the pre-game warm-up in which his teammates sported the rainbow on their jerseys and hockey sticks. When reporters asked for an explanation, he said that he is Russian Orthodox and he wants to stay true to himself..The next morning on state-sponsored Breakfast television out of Toronto, Sid Seixeiro chose to moralize with what has become all-too-typical over-the-top moral ardor and righteous indignation, cloaked as bravery and conviction, all the while costing him nothing. He said he had never heard such hate. He said that it was scary that Provorov was doing anything out of religious conviction (the mind immediately goes to Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa along with, well, Canadian medicare and pretty much every food bank and soup kitchen ever started in this country.) He said that the Flyers, who chose to fly the flags in the first place, should be fined a million dollars and that the NHL needs to get its act right.. Sid SeixeiroSid Seixeiro .There are enough reasons here alone to call for Sid's resignation. Breakfast television, as owned by Rogers, is supported by taxpayer bailout dollars and should not be a vehicle to spew hate. Who is more at risk after the incident, gay and trans people or Provorov? Sid comes dangerously close to calling for violence against this religious man who is also Russian: a minority in our country. Are religious young Russians who choose not to support the political agenda around gay and trans rights a little more fearful after Sid's rant? Perhaps. Again, my tax dollars should not be used to foment hate..But it is Seixeiro's perpetuating of a lie that is the worst. The lie is that by kneeling during the national anthem, by blacking out my social media screen, by wearing an orange shirt, a pink shirt, a ribbon, and by declaring this and that for whatever state and corporate EDI-sponsored call to action that bids me sing their song, do their dance, declare their pronouns, we are actually doing something meaningful—something akin to listening to the story of and helping that young boy who finds himself shoved into his locker again, taunted in the change-room, wondering if he'll ever be loved, or barred from seeing his loved one in intensive care. They are not the same and its time we stop the pretence..The constant call to declare, declare, declare simply turns us not into real friends and fellow-journeyers on what is a tough trip, but rather into lemmings and sheep who follow the state and its sponsored media wherever they lead. For all the flag waving we are not better people who have grown to actually care and act on behalf of others who find themselves unfairly on the fringe..Frankly, what I think makes Sid and his ilk so increasingly angry is when individuals today deign to stick their necks out, show real risk, and choose to act out of conviction against the narrative, whether it be on what war we should fight, what jab to take, or simply what not to declare.
