Edmonton Sun | 27Oct2010 | Orest Slepokura
http://www.edmontonsun.com/comment/letters/2010/10/26/15835241.html
Cut Omar Khadr some slack
Re: Mindelle Jacobs, “Brainwashed child soldiers can be saved, says
prof,” Sun, Oct. 26. Omar Khadr certainly shouldn’t reconnect with his
“very toxic” family, says U of A Prof. Andy Knight, because they’d
likely indoctrinate him again. Agreed! When Omar’s mother and sister
sat for a lengthy TV documentary interview some years ago, the pair
exuded a mix of malice, stupidity, and tawdriness, like watching
low-brow Klan couples on The Jerry Springer Show mouthing off about the
browning of America. Their crassness was off the scale. A child soldier
mentored by adult authority figures to have faith in toxic ideas cannot
be held to the same standard as an adult exercising free agency. Older
judgmental Canadians might do well to recall the metaphysical terrors
instilled in them as children by devout parents, warning of eternal
damnation in hellfire as divine punishment for often minor character
flaws, and cut Omar Khadr some slack.
Orest Slepokura
(May be too late to do
anything about it now.)