OrilliaMatters received the following letter from David Downham in response to comments about the recent raising of the Karen flag at the Orillia Opera House
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I am writing with regards to some comments made in OrilliaMatters in response to the notice of the Karen flag raising (last week).
We are all emigrants to this beautiful country though our ancestors came at different times, even our indigenous people are believed to have journeyed here across the Bering Streit 10,000 years ago from Mongolia, as our Karen People also believe they came from that part of the world to Karen State more than 2,000 years ago.
Now many of the Karen have managed to leave their country, fleeing a situation of persecution by the Burman military, subjugation, land grabbing and killing, that amounts to genocide, in real terms.
'Their Best‘ have been taken in by ‘Western’ countries; Norway, Sweden, the U.K. Australia, the U.S.A and Canada. These are great people and we should be so glad to have them. We should also do all we can for those back home ‘warehoused’ for generations in camps in Thailand along the border and the people still trying to survive inside Karen State, in spite of the oppression of the Burman Army.
In Orillia now the Karen flag is flying with the Canadian flag, as a symbol of our welcome and protection.
To those who feel this is somehow an assault on our identity, maybe you could try to feel as your grandfather or your great grandfather felt when he opened his eyes here for the first time one lovely summer morning.
It is unlikely he worried about his own identity, or for that matter, the Canadian identity. Like the Karen, he just was so grateful to be here in a country run by people who seemed to care and would let him be who he was.
In return, like the Karen, he would do his best to be a good citizen and help his new country grow.
David Downham
(First-generation Canadian)
