My friend Jeromie related a story recently where he was walking down a street in Toronto and saw Ben Mulroney walk out of building ahead of him. If you don't know who the guy is, yes he is indeed the son of former PM Brian Mulroney and despite having a dad who is regarded as quite the dick in some circles, it's certainly no reason to dislike his son. Except Ben is a dork. He hosts Canadian Idol and is a correspondent for E Talk basically going to LA for red carpet events like the Emmys and shoving a mic in celebrities faces shouting "Say hello to Canada! Say hello to Canada!" in a really un-endearing, overly metrosexual, Celine Dione-esque way. You see him, his fake tan and blindingly white teeth and your first reaction is to groan.
So Jeromie passes him and halfway down the block he stops. His thinking was "I can't waste this opportunity." He turns around and yells "Hey Ben Mulroney! You suck!"
That's it, no big confrontation, just stating what in many people's minds is a well deserved opinion and walking away. Was I proud of him for doing it? Hell yes. And I know he was proud of having the guts to say what was on his mind. That's part of living in a democracy.
I bring this little incident up after reading an article posted on the Bendis Board today:
Man arrested for criticizing Cheney
If you wanted a reason to get your ass into a voting booth next month, please let this be it.
Yeah, I could rattle off a laundry list of far more relevant and more horrible things this administration has gotten away with but Americans, this is your basic right to bitch, you deserve it, you should in no way be intimidated from it.
Let 'em know how you feel. If you want to tell someone they suck then you should be able to do so. There may be a response, a retort, maybe even a physical reaction (yes there are risks to free speech), but this shouldn't be one of those consequences.
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