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Re: Patriotism and racing

To: Scott Cowle <scowle@mentorcollege.edu>
Subject: Re: Patriotism and racing
From: Rick Hammond <r.hammond@sympatico.ca>
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 16:38:23 -0400
Scott Cowle wrote:

>   When you guys see me again at Maxton in April if the dates work my brother
> will be with me. He served in the air force and then the 82nd at Fort Bragg
> . I was talking to him yesterday and he is very excited about being in
> N.Carolina again and would like to meet all you ex-military people. I
> watched Bush last night- imagine a politician who says things straight out,
> don't happen north of the border- guess our politicians think our brains are
> too frozen to understand them. Went to the drag strip again last weekend and
> many of the  Canadian cars had U.S. flags on them.

Hi Scott,
Yes, many Canadians have done that out of respect and support.  There
was
Canadian blood shed that day and plenty donated later.  Our service-men
and women
will be out there too.
I'm not taking issue with the need for security but we need a bit of
perspective
so we don't over-react after quickly looking around for boogey-men. (not
that I
am minimizing any real risks or threats)

> Do yourselves a favour
> write your congressmen and President to strongly encourage Canada to really
> beef up its security- why because the largest nucleur reactors are near
> Toronto and will wipe out most of the north east including New York ,
> Pennsylvania Michigan , Ontario and just one week ago people walked right
> into the facilities without anyone so much as saying a word.

That was one stranded fisherman who got through a fence into a
non-critical area
of the grounds; shouldn't have happened (and will not happen again, you
can be
sure) but it wasn't a group wandering into a control room.
If something happened to Pickering near Toronto, firstly it would take a
nuclear
device for it to behave like a bomb, but in any case the closest city
might be
Buffalo; a long way from NY or the rest of the east coast.
Even with winds coming north we were spared most of the effects of your
Three-Mile Island.

> Our goverment
> refuses to admit we have a seriuos security problem.

After all the early news reports; it seems that virtually all those
involved in
the WTC disaster were in the US from elsewhere for a long time; there
was no
'Canadian cell' preparing and heading across the border.  Remember
anyone trying
to cross that border has always passed through the US custom service,
which is
just fine.  They can check my ID, look through the truck etc. and I'm
glad they
will be checking others too.
(Funny though, they did neither last week when I went across; must be my
honest
face ;-)

What I mean by all this is; We are ALL in this together.  We enjoy a
relatively
open border between the two of us, and what I hope will happen is that
we both
will beef up our security on our borders with the rest of the world, so
that we
can continue to trust each other and continue the massive amount of
trade that
keeps Americans and Canadians employed.  This may be a good chance to
improve the
freight situation that has always suffered from delays, more from the
design of
the system than the security.

In times like these we have to watch out for groups that take advantage
of fears
or circumstances to advance their own agendas.  If we end up cutting of
our noses
in fear for our faces (I know; mixing metaphors, as bad as 'racing
saltboxes
against soapboxes in your sandbox... ;-) we all lose and the bastards
win.
That's just what would happen if some congressmen get bugs up their buts
and see
this as something to make point from, and try to raise a new border
between
friends and family members.

I'm listening to the news right now; millions more for RCMP,
immigration, airport
and other measures just as you are doing.  (Check out the CBC for news
some time;
www.CBC.ca to get an idea of how we are already in step.)

Again, no disrespect, we are with you, we will all carry on together
through
this.
God Bless,
Rick

>
> Scott, I built my own soap box and it is pretty strong!

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