Reasonable Accommodation

I'm tired. Exhausted. It's November and I need a day off, NOT just an hour more of sleep that we got today at last. It's a whole week overdue. I don't care how much the government South of my border thinks it will be good for the economy and all that. I should've gotten it a week ago.

That's some way to start my blog, I tell myself. If I'm going to vent, I better be venting about something more important.

So here it is:

In other news, Quebec has been acting a little off these days, AKA: putting on a non-European front and verbal show of political INcorrectness. Hmm. The leaders of the opposition are saying interesting things that fly in the face of pluralism, which (as we are aware) is all the rage these days (pluralism, not flying in the face of it). The general gist goes something like this: Quebec shouldn't accept any more immigrants and if someone wants to live here, be a true Quebecois folkie and speak French. It doesn't sound so terrifying when I write it out like that. It actually sounds like what every Western country is discussing these postmodern days. Makes a person wonder how long pluralism will be "in" before it gets taken over by a scary form of . . . well, the opposite. I can't help but think that sooner or later people will get tired of the "eveything goes" attitude and want to lay down some lines in cold stone. The thought of that gives me a queasy screw-through-the-stomach feel. It also simply makes me sad. I understand that common threads are needed/essential for communities to survive, live, and thrive, but there is more at stake here than the idea that Quebec (or countries in similar situations) will lose their culture completely if immigration and non-francophones inhabit the province. And if we're going to talk about fearing the loss of our present identities/culture, let us not forget to look to the past when thinking about the future. Culture changes. ALWAYS. It is a CONSTANT and FOREVER reality. Nothing stays the same. Every person is born into a varying world and an alternate time. Just think of how much differently North American minds are wired today than they were in early 2001. My parents grew up in a time when the word terrorism was practically non-existent. And their parents grew up in an environment where NOTHING was open on Sundays and when it was an rarity to see a person with Suriname-coloured skin in the Netherlands. Oh, how times have changed. And they will continue to change.

In short, get over it.

Don't get the idea that I'm in this for the cynicsm and negativity. Change in itself is NOT a bad thing.
We CAN get over it, because even though things change and that is often a depressing or terrifying thought, the flavour of what was never really goes away. . . in the same way that Greek and Roman architecture lives on, though through the use of many different techniques, materials, and styles . . . in the same way that people still use canoes as modes of transportation, even though it may be for a recreational trip through the wilderness instead of the standard Canadian way of days gone by. . . in the same way that although many newbies to Quebec will not speak French, there WILL be many a muslim (I say that because Muslim-related discussions are at the fore of these questions for Quebec) immigrant child who will speak French.
"Culture" as we know it is made of particles from the past. It's like a painting fashioned with a multitude of coloured layers. Gliding yet another coat of paint on the canvas almost never completely covers the layers beneath. And those layers beneath make the present layer on top all the more distinct compared to the same initial colour on a second canvas with different shades below.
Quebec's uniqueness (for lack of more descriptive language) will not disappear with the incoming of more immigrants, in the same way that the place of the Catholic church in Quebec's past still haunts the way the province functions today. I won't even get into that.

Sigh. Now I'm REALLY tired. Goodnight.