Dear Editor,
I presume Doug Briggs was being facetious when he wrote that Xtra shouldn't have written anything negative about the Olympics (Letters, March 11, Issue 432). To suggest that the paper should have jumped on the bandwagon and offered the same kind of wholesale, uncritical support of the Games that much of the local media did would obviously fail to recognize the unique role of the alternative press.
Publications like Xtra exist to give voice to those who've historically been excluded from mainstream society. Those thousands who draped themselves in Canadian flags, guzzled beer, and shrieked in the streets for two weeks in a superficial expression of Canadian patriotism were more than adequately represented by the mainstream media.
Had Xtra devoted what few pages it has to the sentiments of the vocal majority, it would have betrayed its traditional readership—those who, regardless of their views on the Olympics, see this paper as one of the few that has always validated the experience of socially marginalized individuals, gay or otherwise.
Indeed, it is precisely those readers who are keenly aware that while thousands participated in Olympic festivities, many others had little reason to celebrate. Xtra should in no way be ashamed for drawing attention to those people.
If Mr. Briggs can't stand anyone raining on his parade, I'd encourage him to leave Xtra for the rest of us who can appreciate alternative viewpoints. I can assure him that there are plenty of other papers he can read that will gladly feed his desire for a sanitized version of reality.
Eddy Elmer,
Vancouver, BC
Copyright © 2010, by Eddy M. Elmer
Permanent URL: http://www.eddyelmer.com/articles/olympicx.htm