There is one thing in mainstream media that irks me to no end. I call it the Kick Zundel Reflex.
The most talented, linguistically gifted, otherwise courageous and outspoken mainstream media folks - there are a few! Trust me! - will manifest that noxious reflex without thinking or apologizing - the way some boorish people sneeze, or worse.
Therefore, I have decided to alert them when it happens to let them know that people notice - and some may take offense. Not only will I illustrate just how and when this reflex manifests itself - but how it can be cured, or so I would like to believe.
My good friend Elena - she of the Wake-Up-Or-Die website fame - suggested the small remedy: Say "Bless you!" every time it happens! It is a tried-and-true charm handed down through centuries, and guaranteed to work.
(Or better yet, ask: "Was that ***you***?")
Do so with an indulgent smile to let them know you understand - it's after all, ". . . just human nature". Let the offender know you overlook poor manners - in view of the overall merits of otherwise seeing the light.
Recently, two editorial writers with skills and smarts to spare showed evidence of having things at long last dawn on them regarding who's running the country. My kudos go to them. And high time, too, says Ingrid.
Here is the first, for your edification. Watch how it goes, according to the Ottawa Citizen, June 8, 1998, in an editorial titled "So politics does matter":
"Last week, the House of Commons voted unanimously to bar Ernst Zundel, the infamous Holocaust denier . . . "
BLESS YOU!
". . . from using a parliamentary room that is normally open to anyone who books it. Mr. Zundel wanted to discuss the recent interim ruling of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that declared, not for the first time, that the truth of a person's speech is not relevant in deciding whether he has violated the Canadian Human Rights Act's prohibition of hate speech.
"Why was Mr. Zundel banned? Because his political and historical beliefs are just too objectionable - we also find them odious . . ."
BLESS YOU!!!
". . . for him to be given access to a public room for a few hours.
"It is possible to put forward a reasonable argument in favor of keeping people like Ernst Zundel . . . "
BLESS YOU?
". . . from using pariamentary rooms. But a great many of the MPs who voted to bar Ernst Zundel were the same people who, not long ago, were piously insisting that a person's political beliefs could never, ever be considered in deciding whether he should get an important public job. Mr. Zundel did not seek employment, of course, he just wanted to speak.
"There are only two ways to explain the glaring contradiction between how most MPs treated the Levine affair and how they dealt with Ernst Zundel. Either the MPs who previously stood for the idea that political beliefs are irrelevant simply chucked that principle the moment it became politically inconvenient.
"Or, the Honorable Members believe that while political beliefs may not bar a person from a major public post, paid for with public dollars, and potentially lasting for years, they may bar a person from using a small public room, at no public expense, for a few hours.
"We suspect the former is the real explanation, in part because of an incident that happened earlier last week. Last Tuesday, Paul Rose, the former FLQ terrorist convicted of murder and kidnapping and still a supporter of truly unsavory political causes, spoke for a few hours in a small public room at the University of Ottawa. To the best of our knowledge, no MP raised a peep of protest.
"Perhaps they were overcome by the fumes of hypocricy in which Parliament Hill has been engulfed recently."
Right on. Only t nt-five bless you's. Notwo-point-five bless you's. Not bad.
Tomorrow we'll count Allan Fotheringham's occasions for Bless You's in an otherwise sparklingly brilliant editorial called "Government by muzzle on the Hill".
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"It is moral weakness, rather than villainy, that accounts for most of the evil in the universe -- and feeble-hearted allies, far rather than your most powerful enemies, are likeliest to do you an injury you cannot recover from."
( Neil Smith )