Fishing Without Fear...

This is an article that was posted in the Peterborough Examiner a month ago:

Hate crimes cops are investigating the case of a 12-year-old boy accused of pushing a Toronto angler into the water in Kawartha Lakes, police said yesterday.

A 46-year-old Asian Canadian man was fishing with his family from a bridge on Canal Lake when police say the boy came up from behind and pushed him into the water on Friday afternoon.

The boy was found by police nearby and charged with one count of assault.

Given the recent history of Asian Canadian anglers being pushed into Ontario waters, the case could have much deeper implications.

How ridiculous is this? A 12 year old that has learned to hate and discriminate against another person because someone looks different. How humiliating for the angler that is minding his own business to have been pushed into the water. How frightened his family must have felt.

As a minority, living in Peterborough, I, for the most part, forget that I am ethnically different than most of my peers. I didn't usually see races. People are people.

It made me sad to hear this on the radio yesterday...

The news was saying how signs are posted along the Trent-Severn Waterway between Lock 19 and Lock 26. Eight of the signs will eventually be posted along the Trent-Severn Waterway between Lock 19 at Lansdowne St. and Lock 26 in Lakefield, said Jack Alexander, director of operations for the waterway, and the three others will be posted at popular fishing spots such as the Little Lake marina and the Lakefield marina.The signs read "Fishing without Fear" in English, French and Chinese and have the number for Crime Stoppers at the bottom.

We all have red blood running through our veins. When will be stop judging a book by their cover?

How often am I guilty of doing the same? Too often. I am often put to shame when I get to know that "book" and see its real content.