Dear Editor:
There was a recent incident at Baden with red paint all over the statue of John A. MacDonald. He was a human being just like the rest of us. He had faults and, yes, those residential schools were not the right thing to do, but it was a different time in a different era and people’s perception and thinking was very different back then.
However, he also had the fortitude and foresight to bring this country together [and he almost got burned alive in his bed doing that]. He was the first prime minister of this country and that should mean that his statue and any other statue (ie. – Wilfrid Laurier and so on) that is a major player in our history should not end up in a corner in some museum – or worse, on a garbage heap.
And anybody spilling paint over them or any other kind of vandalism should have to face serious consequences.
For those who don’t know their history are doomed to make the same mistakes as those who have passed here before us.
I also think that any non-white person that gets pulled over for the likes of speeding should be the same as me and only have to worry about losing points and having their insurance rates go up.
However, defunding the police is not the answer. We need to do a better job of training them and screening them so we weed out the bad ones right away. There has to be a way that crisis counsellors and police work together.
I want the best for everybody but I’m not going to be shoved in a corner or stomped in to the ground to get that accomplished. Cooler heads must prevail.
Greg Hammond,
Moorefield
