This morning I watched the news.
There was a Love Rally in Vancouver.
There was a rally in Boston as well that was disrupted by a bunch of thugs.
There were a couple pride parades.
I wondered - can you really encourage people to love you by going to a rally?
Except for Canada Day in the park, I don't participate in such parades or gatherings - I walk my dog.
I am married to a woman from France, who is of French, Japanese and Vietnamese origin. My neighbour is from Taiwan and married to a woman from China.
Other neighbors are from India, and another from Scotland. We have people of Italian and Portuguese and Vietnamese origin.
We have neighbours and friends of First Nations decent.
We even have a couple Canadian born people like me and of course newly arrived people from the 604 exchange (Vancouver).
I think we also have neighbors who are gay but I don't bother to ask, because that really isn't important. We have a nice fellow who looks of African origin but I am not sure and don't believe it is important. We even have a former Citizen reporter of Manitoba origin!
We walk our dog through the neighbourhood. Everyone is friendly and we exchange "good mornings" and "hellos."
We often meet others with dogs of different breeds and our dogs enjoy the exchange of greetings.
We even meet cats! We have a good neighbourhood.
Nobody has signs on their lawns professing their origins or professing to love everyone.
We quietly live and enjoy diversity everyday - we don't shout it!
We are Canadian.
Gerry Lundquist
Prince George
