On Dog Whistles and Poppy Pins
"You People love our way of life... love our milk and honey," but don't wear poppies. "At least you can pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that,""These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada." and with that Don Cherry sparked an outrage that resulted in his ousting from Hockey Night in Canada.
Later on Fox News with Tucker Carlson he clarified: “‘You people’ are the people they listened to. The silent majority, as you know, are always silent.The police are with me. The forces are with me. Everybody is with me, and the firefighters and the whole deal. But it doesn’t make any sense and I was brought in and I was told I was fired after 38 years. I stand by what I said and I still mean it.”
Backtracking a little he said somewhat implausibly that he meant you people to mean everyone. “All I was saying in Toronto, wear your poppies. These soldiers died for our way of life… They died so we can have our way of life and please wear a poppy in their honour.”
I recently had the chance to get an immigrants perspective on Don Cherry. The young man came from Iran ten years ago and is now a Canadian citizen. He related to me how he understood the poppy. For his first five years in Canada he did not know what the poppy was nor its significance. No one told him and he didn't ask. He never bought a poppy, not out of ingratitude but out of ignorance. When he took his citizenship exam he studied the origins of the poppy ritual and seeing the significance, began wearing the poppy. The young man was adamant that Cherry should not be fired. "If we clamp down on small things they will explode into big things." Don may not understand the reason behind the lack of poppy participation among immigrants but he identified the true phenomenon.
We are better served to allow observations about phenomena as long as we allow open debate on the cause. Indeed you will find likely three perspectives on the cause (Why immigrants do not wear poppies):
Right wing - ungrateful immigrants don't care.
Left wing - immigrants righteously reject imperialist gestures of war mongering.
Non-Partisan (Practical) - immigrants don't know what or why the rituals exist but will adopt them as they integrate into society.
By firing Cherry we block the essential first step in discourse which is the identification of the phenomenon. As we block basic discourse we drive it underground and we build up tinder for the fire next time.
Firing Cherry extinguishes a smouldering heap and lays the ground for an inferno. Take it from an Iranian immigrant.
...and here we are.
