Mooning not the same as murder

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A letter circulating in Lethbridge calling for the murder of aboriginal people is hardly a lark.

Fil Fraser, head of Alberta's Human Rights Commission, says insulting racial minorities is turning into the fad of the 1990s.

It's replaced things like mooning and streaking, he says.

Some people get a "cheap thrill" by making racial slurs, he says.

C'mon, get serious.

Circulating hate literature which says it's open season on Native people is hardly some boyish prank.

It must be condemned in the strongest possible language.

It's "very grotesque, very slanderous," said Ron MacDonald, an instructor at Lethbridge Community College, who brought it to the attention of college officials.

He called a spade a spade.

Not Fraser, who seems to want to treat the rednecks and racists in southern Alberta with kid gloves when an iron fist is called for.

The piece of trash circulated in Lethbridge, which appears to be a hotbed of racism, is in the same evil category as Jim Keegstra's denial of the Holocaust and Terry Long's rantings and ravings about white power.''

No one should stand silently by and let go unchecked the actions of those who get "cheap thrills" from insulting the dignity of Natives.

Mike Bruised Head of the Sik-Ooh-Kotok Friendship Society in Lethbridge said local and provincial government leaders should take note.''"The onus falls on the leadership of this province. If they don't act, they're just perpetuating the problem," he said.

Well said.

It should be open season on those responsible, who when discovered, should be charged and punished firmly, to send a strong message to those tempted to pursue such "cheap thrills."

And they might also be sentenced to put aside their white robes and pointy hats to spend a week on an Indian reserve or Metis settlement getting to know their fellow Canadians.