All Irish are Drunks
Lately I've found a source of daily amusement in the letters to the editor of the Toronto Sun. Writes one Sun reader - Domenic Faragalli of Welland - to the editor in today's paper:
"Just because a person is a politician doesn't mean he/she is a hero. Canadians are sick and tired of the dog and pony shows at all levels of govt. We are tired of self-serving, rich politicians who think they are better than those they serve. To say they are heroes is a joke. "
What bothers me about Mr. Faragalli's comments isn't that they're rife with ignorant cliches borne of apathy and uninformed disdain, but that I know he is far from alone in his opinions.
Adding frustration to bother is that, at least in my experience, those who share his sentiment - who label all politicians as corrupt, self serving crooks - almost never vote, never read a newspaper (beyond the Sunshine Girl), never know the state of current national or political affairs...they rarely even know who their local city councillor, MP or MPP is. What's more - again, in my experience - it's usually the same people that say all Irish are drunks, all Jews are cheap and all Arabs are thieves. After a while, it all begins to sound the same.
Now I'm not saying that Mr. Faragalli is a racist, a fool or uneducated. I'm not suggesting he's totally ignorant or apathetic. But what I do say to him is that, if he's truly informed, if he's truly engaged, if he's really serious about principles of good government, there's a simple solution to his pain: run for office!
posted by CORCORAN @ 12:25 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
What bothers me about Mr. Corcoran’s comments is the fact that he is putting down a person who obviously has such strong feelings about an article about politicians. Mr. Corcoran seemed to have missed the ENTIRE point of a “letter to the editor” column of the paper, and that is to comment on a previously written articles. Instead, Mr. Corcoran decided to only read Mr. Faragalli’s article and criticize.
While Mr. Corcoran tries to be witty and clever in putting down Mr. Faragalli, he does a great job in making himself look like an ass. Or is that to cliché for you? The only thing cliché about this article is the way he ended it. Mr. Corcoran sounds like a typical suit, “run for office!” Wow, thank you for the great insight, I have NEVER heard that before.
The fact of the matter is, you don’t know anything about Mr. Faragalli. Mr. Corcoran implies that Mr. Faragalli never reads the newspaper (beyond the sunshine girl) and yet Mr. Faragalli is responding to an article found IN the newspaper. He was not looking at pictures. He was reading the political section. Although, I am sure you were just trying to prove a point?
Unlike Mr. Corcoran who went in a round-a-bout way to make fun of Mr. Faragalli, by calling him “ignorant”, “racist”, “uneducated” (I could go on). I will just come out and say it. Mr. Corcoran, you are a very uninformed person who makes very broad assertions of people and get great joy out of making them feel stupid.
While your column was nothing more then a little ego, power trip to prove to everyone how “clever” you are. It didn’t work. We can see through you!
Actually, if you check the facts of the matter, and re-read my comments from start to finish, you'll see that they were in fact very clever and searing with wit.
You're very right that I don't know anything about Mr. Faragalli, beyond his letter to the editor, which I believe he intended to be published, and from which I quoted both verbatim and (I feel) in context.
For reference of how "typical suits" decide to run for office when they want to make a difference, witness my MPP, Cheri DiNovo. By her teens, DiNovo was selling drugs and living on the street. From what must have seemed like rock bottom, she went on to become a renwoned and highly respected United Church minister, doubling the congregation numbers in a short period of time (if I'm not mistaken). Now she's the community's elected representative, two doors down from running the province.
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