Why Me?
B
orn and raised in Toronto Canada which is considered a cosmopolitan city exposed to all that the world’s media and American has to offer. Canada is a social democratic society with a population on tenth that of the US where some 35 million people entertain a minimum of five National political parties, universal health care, and soft forms of socialism. Where in 2018 marijuana will be legal and in many provinces the sale of alcohol is still only at governmental and provincial outlets not at the corner store. A country of hard workers, where the experiment of multiculturalism is still working as the second generational wave makes all people Canadians regardless of color. Where hockey is the National sport of choice and where a national TV network carries Hockey Night In Canada, the Holy Grail of Canadian Hockey in a Punjabi version, and it works! A die hard Toronto Maple Leaf fan, a supporter of the Buffalo Bills but a real fan of the Patriots. I grew up Influenced by American television and media. When I was in grade 5 I grew-up very much like American kids watching all the same network TV shows because Toronto was on the boarder and received every US TV channel; ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS. Sometimes I think I had a better TV selection than many who actually lived in America. WKBW-TV Channel 7 (ABC) affiliate’s morning show Rocketship 7 was a favorite. One day I approached my mother asking if she could mail this Christmas letter to Vietnam Soldier. Rocketship 7 asked their US viewers to write a Christmas note to the American soldiers over in Viet Nam who are fighting. My mother was confused as to why this 10-year-old Canadian wanted to send a note to a Vietnam solider.
In our apartment complex my parents said we had draft dodgers living beside us. They were great people but as child I had no concept of what a draft dodger really was. I watched the daily news footage and violence of the war. I realized what casualty numbers meant and saw soldiers die in the Viet Nam war and I watched the protests and the demonstrations. I had my taste of the American Hollywood dream as the sole Canadian winner of a contest to appear in the original movie Grease. Flew to LA, and actually was in the movie, met Travolta and the cast. Then continued in broadcast television as an award winning Live producer and traveled the world. But I maintained my interest and keen following of the US media. I saw assassinations, school killings and inner city social revolt. Watched Waco burn, cried at 911’s horror live, and stayed up all night as the gulf war unfolded live on multiple TV channels.
A neighbor living beside a country that is ten times the size of Canada whose politics is powered by a nations insatiable appetite for a daily barrage of attention-grabbing thought provoking political media machine that spins and dispenses rhetoric and facts from two polarized political parties.How can all this in America not directly affect me? Hence why the creation of