I’m not even sure what to say about the latest “Richmond video.” It’s by no means on the scale of the racist rant we saw go viral last month, but I still have to admit I find it disturbing.
In this video, it appears that a group of young men are tearing down the sticky notes posted on the Lennon Wall below Aberdeen Canada Line Station. Others step in to protect the wall, a little shoving ensues, but the situation never turns violent. Police arrive, talk to some of the people involved, but no arrests are made.
In other words, in the grand scheme of things, this is not the most dramatic event. Not that many people were involved and no one got hurt — physically, at least.
Regardless, I find it depressing and not something to be ignored.
The concept of the Lennon Wall is a beautiful one. It’s intended to embody the peace, love and free expression that John Lennon came to represent.
First created in Prague, Czechoslovakia, following the assassination of John Lennon in 1980, the Lennon Wall was a kind of memorial site where people could give voice to their grief and thoughts about John Lennon. However, the wall soon turned into an expression of the people’s frustration with that country’s regime.
During the 2014 democracy protests in Hong Kong, a new Lennon Wall became one of the major symbols of the democratic reform movement. As the protests in Hong Kong have continued, Lennon Walls have sprung up around the world, including here in Richmond. We first reported on this in July, when a Lennon Wall was erected at the Brighouse Canada Line Station.
(Just as an aside, I have to hand it to those Hong Kong protesters; they’ve come up with some wonderfully creative ways to make their case. At one point, they were singing Star-Spangled Banner in front of the American embassy in hopes of eliciting more American support.)
Anyway, it appears another Lennon Wall was erected at Aberdeen Station, which last night became the target of, we assume, pro-China supporters.
I find it hard to get my mind around how people can oppose that kind of democratic expression. I totally understand people’s love for their home country and I may feel offended if there was a hate-on for Canada. But this is where it’s so important to distinguish a particular political regime from a nation, its people and its culture.
I also hate this kind of thing because, as sure as the sun rises, we have those on Facebook doing the whole, “Then go back where you came from.” But at least they can’t just rant on about “the Chinese,” given there are Chinese people on both sides of this conflict.
What I found most telling was the fact one of the people trying to protect the wall at Aberdeen Station said to one of the vandalizers, “Write your own message. If you don’t support the Hong Kong protesters, say that.” In other words, it’s not about being for or against, it’s about the freedom to express.
And that’s a value we can’t afford to negotiate.
