A strange political incident in a Montreal restaurant

"....it's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out of here to win."
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, 'Thunder Road' 1975.

Quebec isn't much of a place when it comes to worldly affairs these days. It's just another 'geographic expression' that has sprung up in the post-war era. It is perfectly happy and comfortable in its lethargic pace. A land where intellectual pygmy's can find a home and live well. A place that observes the fault lines of others without much care to rethink itself. A society that revels in faux sophistication and rhetorical political impracticalities. A region that has no qualms about politicizing all facets of its existence. A large land mass where reactionary anti-Americanism comes to lay and rest.

The myth of the happy-go-lucky Quebecois was once upon a time a reality. Instead, jealous parochialism has created an underbelly of suspicious commoners and pseudo-intellects with tiresome demands. That Quebec's political class would even entertain in their thoughts to liken themselves to true oppressed peoples is outrageous and morally repugnant. We mistake thoughtful critical thinking with teenage temper tantrums. It's a world that wants to go off on its own - as long as Canada pays the rent. Its own leaders, in a final climatic fit of absurd contradiction, earn Federal pensions paid by all Canadians.

Its population enjoys all the benefits that come with living next to the United States, though one must never ever say so publicly or in print, as any region on the continent. Its own poverty, failures and ignorance are largely of their own designs. How serious and mature is this society? Really.

Quebecers can at will make disparaging remarks about America. However, if an American does the same, watch out. The howls from sensitive nationalists would be merciless.

So, please allow me to do the same in trying to make a point in this piece.

Our cultural and economic hub (both misnomers) is Montreal. Itself a city-state within an unproductive province that has paid dearly and possibly eternally for the haphazard stupidity of a small group of elites who have a pathetic little dream.

Montreal is a mere shell these days. A deliciously sinful town where lust, sexiness and hipness conspire to create a murky and steamy world. City Unique indeed. On the surface, it looks first-rate. Montreal has the feel of a city that was built on marble and gold. Scratch and dig further and we see a second-rate town made out of logs. Beavers would capitalize better on the potential of this city. Montreal should break free and run for the hills if it wants to preserve any sanity.

Today, lunch was being served at a local Montreal eatery on a trendy French-Canadian street once inhabited by working class Jews. The cast included my apolitical wife, myself, our daughter, our 'caught in the middle' waiter and the antagonist - an ignorant and misguided tip seeking busboy.

The comment was surreal enough to prevent us from forming any response. Upon reflection we recognized that our freedom to live as we choose was questioned and in some way attacked. Poor gal, it was an innocuous t-shirt that happened to have an American flag on it. It was a jean company from New York. He, perfectly comfortable in his grasp (which was obviously not much) of American society, politics and existence, asked if my wife "was not embarrassed for wearing such a t-shirt during this political climate." Stunned, as I said.

It was a shockingly ignorant comment for several reasons. First, what's it to him? It's a place of business where we as paying customers had every right to a peaceful meal free of any political assertions. Second, how does his conscience allow him to pass judgment on us? Third, what if we were American tourists? A population that spends millions in the Quebec economy. Is this a way to treat people? Fourth, would he rather we wear the provincial colors? A flag that tolerates bandits like the Language Police who roam the streets, protected by government, like union thugs and bums harassing law-abiding and productive citizens? In the end, we expressed our disappointment to our sympathetic waiter and we left it at that. Thus taking comfort in the fact that there still exists some level of civil normality.

His comment was telling of a society that has become rather impolite since 1976. It's one thing to think such things but quite another to express it at the most inappropriate moments. What did he want to achieve by doing this? This was not an act of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech demands that we respect one another in a civil society.

This was the act of an inconsiderate know-nothing. A product of his own province's already degraded intellectual ethos. There is no doubt that, in his mind, he had every right to express himself. Furthermore, in his eyes, the flag represented something evil and un-pure. The deaths on 9/11 meant little to him nor, do I suspect, do the people of Iraq. He was merely concerned with his own personal world view. That's his opinion.

In a civil society, a true civil society, people do not cross this line. At the very least, he should have considered a couple of realities. One, what if we had a relative that was killed or barely escaped death as we did on 9/11? Two, actually consider that as we approach the anniversary of 9/11, some people may be moved to wear the flag in honor of the dead. That's their choice.

It is clear to men like him that Americans are to be blamed (indeed everything) for the deaths of 3 000 people.

In all my years of traveling in America I have never witnessed such a distasteful act in that country. In fact, whatever Canadian symbols I happened to be wearing was usually met with friendly gestures. Those who thought little of it had the decency to keep it to themselves. It speaks volumes of their maturity and cherished values of freedom and progress. The gentleman at the restaurant spoke volumes for an immature society. A society that has yet to truly grasp what freedom means.

Sheesh, imagine if I wore my 'I Love New York' pin?