I’m writing this from my hotel in Italy. Nightmare getting here although we were lucky to have booked Lufthansa before the Air Canada debacle. Nearly missed our connection in Munich — they held the plane for us but we got here and I exhaled as I always do on Italian soil. It is a real heart connection for me and I respond mentally to beauty in ways I can’t explain. The chaos of a few elements of Italian culture and life are overridden by history, architecture and quality here.
I will never understand why Italians immigrated to Canada — which isn’t to say that portions of our country don’t still leave me breathless with their beauty — Haida Gwaii being one of them — but urban Canadian life just sucks in every way right now.
Our plane was full to the brim because of all the A/C flights that were cancelled. More than half of the fliers were foreign — which is to say mostly immigrants of some kind who didn’t or wouldn’t speak English. It was unsettling and I risk being called names for saying it. Are we allowed to report that being in the midst of a crowded airport gate, surrounded by people with whom you have nothing in common, who don’t reflect your culture, language or customs, is somehow morally deficient or racist?
How did this happen in our country? The 1% fly private or first class, which gives them separate lounge access — inoculating themselves from the tensions caused by their governance and support for policies that have destroyed this country.
At the airport food court, my son bought a hamburger at a stall run by young employees of a certain heritage — five of them chatting to each other in a foreign tongue — while serving customers in a country whose official languages are English and French.
Into the washroom I went — pre-flight and the music on the sound system was also in a foreign tongue. There were very few nods to the actual country and citizens hosting the airport and travel — beyond some kitschy Canadiana souvenir stalls.
Interesting to run through the airport in Munich. Totally different experience as was the flight into Italy. I know Germany has its own issues with unfettered immigration but I didn’t see it in the airport or on the flight.
There are days I question my own motives for feeling this way. But I wonder, if the experience were reversed and the capital cities of the countries exporting millions of citizens to us were inundated with Northern European Christians — seemingly all at once and everywhere — what would the reaction be?
As for Jacquie, me and Ted Bundy; we both feel privileged to have facilitated the voices of his victims and survivors. His crimes darkened the horizon for women of our generation and opened the gates to the serial killer phenomenon. Feel free to ask us anything and I will invite Jacquie to comment here.
Stay critical.
#truthovertribe.
Ciao!!!
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