My column in today's London Free Press, For a Jewish journalist, hate talk is getting personal, marks another milestone in my evolution as a writer – or my descent into self-absorbed verbiage, depending on your perspective (that was really supposed to be funny, but it's early yet.) Long story short, I'm becoming less and less afraid to pull my background as a Jew into my so-called mainstream writing efforts.
In the past, I hesitated to identify myself by ethnicity or religion because I feared I would be stigmatized before having a chance to establish a broader reputation. That started to change earlier this year as the supposedly tolerant nation of Canada began to witness a major upswing in the frequency and ferocity of anti-Semitic activity. I felt like a coward for sitting on the sidelines while others stuck their necks out and wrote powerful pieces condemning this trend.
There's a lot of hatred out there that's being directed at pretty much any group you can imagine. There's no excuse for any of it. And when you mix my bottomless sense of righteous indignation, my perpetual support for the underdog, and my freakish ability to rant until well past sunset, you end up with articles that look much like this morning's column. Enjoy.
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3 comments:
Ditto what Cleolove said!!!
Damn, Carmi! You are my hero. What an amazing writer and what an amazing human being you are.
Thank you for sharing your gift and yourself with your readers both in your articles and on your blog.
[Carmi blushes]
You're both way too kind, and I am touched by your thoughts. It gives me incentive to keep cranking out the words. I'm always amazed by how much this stuff - the seemingly trivial stringing together of words - really matters. It changes people. It changes the world around us. It's a pretty heady feeling, and I feel amazingly privileged that I was born with this weird ability to do it somewhat well.
You go Carmi!
Hate propaganda really is the public domain these days. Someone (Mr. Martin, are you listening?)really needs to do something about it instead of allowing this sort of nonsense as "freedom of speech". What sort of message are we sending to our children? That it's O.K. to ridicule others and condemn their beliefs because there are no repercussions? It's a dangerous message.
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