I heard about this commentary on the Fox News “Red Eye” show early this morning on the radio, and I’ve been stewing about it all day. I know, I know, they’re just a bunch of idiots trying to be “funny” – but as someone who married into a family with a military history, I take this personally beyond simply being Canadian. I have a cousin who has served two tours in Afghanistan, and thankfully she’s come back safe and whole both times. Below is what I emailed to Fox News ([email protected]) – it pretty much sums up what I feel about this subject.
As a Canadian, I’m used to having my country poked fun at – and most of the time, I laugh right along with the joke. Friends can do that with each other, and there are no better friends amongst the nations of the world than Canada and the United States of America. We share a common culture, and many common values.
But…
To poke fun at our active soldiers, fighting alongside your soldiers – arguably in the more dangerous parts of Afghanistan than your own troops are fighting in – crosses the line from humour to insulting attacks. Let’s not forget that the single biggest reason that the Canadian Army is in Afghanistan is because the your country was attacked on 9/11. 116 of my fellow Canadians have died, with many more hundreds wounded, fighting against the groups that attacked your country. To mock their sacrifice is deplorable and reprehensible.
This type of “comedy” is on-par with the worst type of racism, and I expect Fox News to treat this matter with the utmost seriousness.
Jason Dunn
in Canada
I sent a variation of it to Greg Gutfeld (the host), and Monica Crowley. Bill Schulz only has Twitter as a communications method so I couldn’t send that message to him – instead I opted for a Twit that suggested he belittle the American soldiers fighting alongside the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and see what happened. I’ve noticed that the people with the biggest mouths tend to be the biggest cowards. The last panelist, Doug Benson, has his MySpace profile locked down to only receive messages from people on his friends list, so I opted to send him a simple Twit that informed him I was Canadian, and that I thought he sucked.
I should point out that, unlike some of the 10,000+ YouTube comments on that video above, I in no way take the opinions of these four people to represent those of Americans in general. Amongst 303 million people, you’re going to have some nutjobs. The question is, how do so many of them end up in the media? 😉