Re: re: NPS Competition
tudararms:
It is problematic judging other cultures based on our values, beliefs and context. It is all the more tricky when looking at history to do this.
Yes, very problematic for so many reasons - including for the very scenario that you yourself presented in earlier statements. Hence the need to never tie up the original reasons for complex historical actions with the rationalizations that come later on. The two must be distinguished. When speaking of "other" cultures, do remember that before the Second World War Canada had an unwritten and unpleasant policy towards Jewish immigration that was described as "none is too many." Beyond that, what is wrong with saying that there was a large-scale anti-semitic attitude in existence during that time? Did every individual share in it? No, of course not! But there is a long history of it that is well documented - whether you want to excuse it on the basis of past cultural attitudes or not. Of course they didn't call it anti-semitic back then, did they? Just as there were no "racists" per se sixty years ago. To the thinking of many people of that time it was just "obvious" that people of other races were inferior. Times, knowledge and thinking, have changed.
I would agree, but that was not my point. For those here who are starved for heros, turning to Nathan Phillips as some sort of repressed minority leader who made it against all odds is sad:
A) Jewish people in post-war Europe were recovering from the Holocaust, not running for office.
B) Comparing Phillips to Churchill is all the more incredible when you realize that without Churchill's achievement it is *conceivable* that the achievement of Phillips' - as a jewish person - may not have been possible.
I don't think it is about hero worship. What is so wrong about a public square recognizing the political leader of the city during its formative years? Why erase the name off the square? You provide no reason other than to suggest that Phillips was not "heroic." Beyond this, you make a typical historical error in attempting to place a direct link between Churchill and Nathan Phillips - as in the notion that had there been no Churchill, there would have been no Jewish mayor of Toronto. Churchill's declaration of war on Germany had nothing to do with Jews in Germany as the large scale murder of Jewish populations was not yet underway. Counterfactuals are fun, but they don't prove anything and don't help much in clarifying historical cause and effect.
As for electoral history, the first Jewish person to be elected to public office in British lands was Ezekial Hart of Lower Canada in 1807. He made two attempts to sit in the Legislative Assembly, but was barred by British laws that prohibited Jews from holding such positions. In Canada, the laws were changed in 1832 to allow full political rights to Jewish citizens - 27 years before Great Britain.
Nathan Phillips was a prominent mayor of Toronto, so I see no reason why a public square in front of the city hall in Toronto named after him should be renamed. You have yet to provide a case as to why this name should be changed, other than some ill-defined notion that Phillips did not live up to a subjective measure of heroics.