Re: BREAKING: Westlock votes to ban Pride crosswalks, other flags by 24 votes
Congratulations to the Town of Westlock in purposing your Crosswalk and Flagpole Bylaw...a common sense and truly inclusive bylaw.
Please let me explain why.
I am sure that if you ask the mayor and council of the Town of Westlock, and the Town of Olds for that matter, they would all agree that they stand with all communities. They would stand with the 2SLGBTQ+ community. They would stand with the Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu and all other religious communities. They would stand with the Filipino, Chinese, Ukrainian, Isreali, Brazilian, Cuban and all other nation communities. They would stand with the Indigenous and Metis communities. They would stand with the Black, Arabic, East Asian, African, West Asian, and all other peoples of colour communities. They would say that they stand with all these communities and any other that I may have missed.
The truth of the matter is it would be impossible to fly a flag, have a crosswalk, celebrate a day, week, month or season for every community that makes up our incredible country of Canada, our wonderful province of Alberta and our amazing villages, towns and cities. We would unintentionally miss one or more communities and mistakenly offend someone.
In my opinion, the only logical, common-sense way to celebrate our incredibly diverse country is to let everyone know that the national Canadian flag represents everyone, that our provincial Alberta flag represents everyone and that our municipal Town of Olds flag represents everyone equally.
After all, isn't that what inclusion is all about...including everyone equally?
Michael Muzychka,
Olds
