Racism rampant

I was honoured to drum and sing in solidarity with Alicia, and family members at the one-year anniversary of Dale Culver’s death in police custody near 10th Avenue and Highway 97.

From the news coverage to date, so much of the evidence points to police brutality and racist profiling causing Dale’s death. Shortly after this memorial session, I was witness to a verbal assault by a white female store manager on a First Nations man who was peacefully asking for change. He was gentle; she was screaming, swearing and hysterical and a reminder of what monsters racism creates, because I believe this was her motive.

I was shocked and horrified and didn’t react in the moment, but I will protest, and write where I can about this issue that raises its ugly head over and over in Prince George, and I will follow Dale Culver’s story. I am so sorry for the impact on families, and on all of us, of brutality fueled by hatred. Susan Phillips Prince George crippling Russia’s economy in the wake of the “invasion” of Crimea and alleged interference by Russia in the 2016 U.S. election, to say nothing of diplomats expelled following Russia’s alleged involvement in the Novichok poisonings in England.

The word “alleged” says it all, as, except for Crimea, there is little or no evidence of official authorization for any of the foregoing, and even less for direct links to Vladimir Putin himself.

Yet, teary-eyed and, with sanctimonious indignation about “meddling,” the United States is crying foul: Russia must pay for doing to us what we have done for decades, that is, interfere in the affairs of other countries. Just ask Guatemala, Haiti, Cuba, the Congo, Chile, Argentina, Panama, Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Ukraine, Venezuela – need one go on? Each an open book, nothing “alleged.”

The reality is that the “military industrial complex” needs enemies and has found one in Russia. The current sabre-rattling by NATO backed countries on Russia’s borders is money in the bank.

But is there not something else at play besides weapon sales and Pentagon slush funds? I believe it’s called the U.S. dollar – any country that speaks of abandoning it, like Russia or Iran, is immediately in the State Department’s crosshairs. But that’s another story.

Back to Ukraine. Our silence is deafening about the 1.5 million citizens who, after the 2014 coup, fled the country’s Dunbass region in the east for Russia, not Kiev. What does that tell us, except that we must call Washington’s bluff about an oppressed Crimea. Please Mr. Trudeau, don Canada’s peacekeepers’ hat and challenge the Kremlin to allow a U.N./U.S. supervised referendum among Crimean residents – do they, or do they not, wish to remain with Russia or revert to Kiev’s rule? Provided, of course, that western governments accept the decision as the end of this story. Dereck Sale Prince George