Rosie Dimano:

Today you wrote ["Tissue of lies covers bypass of `ground zero'," Rosie Dimano, The Toronto Star, September 24, 2001]:

"[W]e take noble objectives of tolerance to their most illogical ends, a place where nothing seems to have meaning anymore, where there's little to distinguish right from wrong."

When you blend in hedonism, nihilism and consumerism together with rampant multiculturalism and mix well, that's what you end up with -- a kind of gumbo in limbo. It's nomal, it's natural. Inevitable.

It's not all bad, mind you. For example, you and Christie Blatchford might, if feeling so inclined, play a few rounds of golf whilst topless. Something I doubt the Taliban regime would allow.

This happened only in February 1996 in Toronto, after the cops raided a gay bar and arrested a dozen "entertainers" for their lewd behaviour. Several of the patrons, you may recall, were masturbating on stage and ejaculating into the audience. You and city councillor, Kyle Rae, both voiced sharp disapproval of the police for making the arrests.

You defended the "masturbatory entertainment" on the grounds that it was "not offensive." In fact, what you found truly "disquieting" was how the cops had presumed to impose their own "middle brow" morality on the "frolicsome male dancers."

Councillor Kyle Rae, shared your concern. He did agree that the erotic acts performed on stage had been "quite salacious" but added "I don't think people really [got] splattered that much."

For your part, you described the acts as "sexual showbiz, where one man's perversion is another's diversion" ["Free expression has its limits," Peter Stockland, The Calgary Sun, March 15, 1996].

Seems to me, Rosie Dimano, you were one of those who brought us to a place -- call it gumbo in limbo -- "where nothing seems to have meaning anymore, where there's little to distinguish right from wrong."

Now, like a petulant child, you don't like the look of the mess you helped create.

Sincerely yours,

Orest Slepokura
Strathmore, Alta.