Lack of respect for America
 

Wondering what our friends up north think about this...

MONTREAL -- Fans booed during the playing of the U.S. national anthem before the New York Islanders' 6-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.

The sellout crowd of 21,273 at Bell Centre was asked to "show your support and respect for two great nations'' before the singing of the American and Canadian national anthems.

But a significant portion of the crowd booed throughout "The Star-Spangled Banner'' in an apparent display of their displeasure with the U.S.-led war against Iraq. More than 200,000 people turned out for an anti-war demonstration in Montreal last Saturday.

Mark Parrish, a native of Bloomington, Minn., was upset hearing the boos.

"I came to the game pretty pumped up, but once I heard that it really got me going,'' Parrish said. "So I guess I can thank them a little bit for getting me more pumped up.

Parrish later added on The Sports Network of Canada: "If it wasn't for America, who knows what language I'd be speaking now."

Another anti-war protest took place earlier in the day along St. Catherine's Street as protestors chanted "No Blood for Oil" in both French and English. The Canadian government is opposed to the war in Iraq.

"I'm sure there are a lot of people against the war, but some things people can't control,'' said New York's Alexei Yashin, who is from Russia. "They were probably showing what they feel about it.''

Defenseman Mike Komisarek, who is from Islip Terrace, N.Y. and is the only American-born player on the Montreal roster, was asked about his feelings on the war.

"I'd rather not comment on that," he told Newsday. "Just my prayers are with the troops in the Middle East and hope they come home soon and safe to their families."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Re: Lack of respect for America
 

The only flag I have in my house is the US Flag. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img]

Re: Lack of respect for America
 

With a son and son-in-law in the Canadian Army and a daughter joining, It isn't hard to see where our sentiments are. In reality, our government is supporting the US effort a lot more than is made public. We've had soldiers in the gulf region for quite some time. I prefer to speak English. Wasn't very good in French in high school and never took German. I guess we should thank, in part,the good old US of A. Of course Canada had about 400,000 troops fighting in world war II. We have to salute them also.

Re: Lack of respect for America
 

Well said friends from Canada! At least the Canadian motorheads realize what has to be done here, Thanks [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img]

Re: Lack of respect for America
 

It just amazes me what these people are protesting about. They have no idea of how repressed the Iraqi people are. Iraqis are already starting to celebrate as our troops start securing areas of Iraq. What are they protesting? The fact that we're helping set these people free? We should have done this 12 years ago.

Re: Lack of respect for America
 

Last night's (same night) Hockey game between the Vancouver Canucks & Nashville Predators both Anthems were played.
The Visitors Anthem, which was the US, was played after the home teams Canadian.
There was a HUGE "standing O" after the US was played. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img]

People at a Montreal game [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif[/img] don't speak for everyone North of the border.
Don't know what's wrong with the Government though. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: Lack of respect for America
 

For the record.... I never voted for our prime minister. I support the US troops 100%. People are all worked up about this war. This is just part of the battle. The war started on Sept 11th, and not by our or the US's choice. I wish them luck and hope all come home safe, although I'm told at least two have unfortunately died! Good luck soldiers, My thought are with you!!!!
Peter [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img]

Re: Lack of respect for America
 

Well I guess booing is not really so bad.....our lovely citizens in San Francisco and Chicago as well as other places had large demonstrations and protests.Most of the kids figured Iraq didn't deserve to get hit since they didn't do anything to us....I got an E-mail yesterday which said something about an earthquake being detected in France registering a 10 on the Richter scale....it went on to say the cause of the eartquake was all the US servicemen who helped liberate France and were laid to rest there were rolling over in their grave...

Re: Lack of respect for America
 

Politicians...That is where the problem lies. For the most part it is not the people of opposing nations who disagree, most just follow their leadership. How soon France has forgotten what it is like to be pushed around by a dictator...and who came to their rescue. Let someone attack Canada and see who they turn to for help...The really odd part is the government that is standing behind us the strongest, the same government that the people of America ran from and defended against to have Freedom. Now they stand beside us fighting for what they did not want us to have 229 years ago. America has a lot of people who dislike us, many do not even know why. I think much of the dislike is based on envy, many people never liked the most popular kid in school simply because they couldnt be them. People resent the power, success, and freedom of America. Since many nations do not enjoy our success and cant seem to find a way to succeed, they would like to see us fail to be at their level. Take an alcoholic that quits drinking. All his drinking buddies will try to get him to drink again so they dont have to face the problem they have. Nations are the same but on a larger scale. No one wants someone else to be the superpower, they all want to be that. Problem is, the world needs a superpower to keep all the idiots like Hussain from destroying the world and himself along with it. Thank God that the superpower in the world is one that has enough sense to want freedom for everyone. Suppose World War Two had went the other way and Hitler would have won...where would we be today? There would not be a safe neighborhood anywhere in this country if we did not have police departments to keep the peace and protect us from chaos. The same applies for the world, it is getting smaller all the time, someone has to pay attention...do we really want a government like Iraq or North Korea being the world power? I think not. Nations may not agree with what we are doing, maybe they dont want the burden of having to be the one to keep the peace. No problem, step back and we will get the job done, but dont interfere while we are doing the job of protecting ourselves and everyone else in the world. There is not a corporation anywhere in the world that could operate sucessfully without management and supervisors, the world has gotten to the point where it is much like a large corporation with many different departments. I believe that individual people as a whole would understand what was happining a lot better if the politicians with their own agendas were not putting out so much rhetoric. I think we will find that the agenda the French government will have comes down to when we find the so called "weapons" in Iraq, many of the supplies that made those weapons will say "Made In France". That combined with the fact that Iraq owes France billions makes for a rather important agenda in the minds of their politicians. I personally believe our Canadian brothers are just as concerned with the safety of this continent as we are, after all, it comes down to an imaginairy line on a map. If our soil is attacked in the US, it is the same soil that the good people of Canada stand on. Saddam has merely been playing one side against the other for years, much like children play one parent against the other. Well Saddam, the parents got wise, even if mom and dad have to argue about it, off to reform school for you!
Thanks,
Motown [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif[/img]

Re: Lack of respect for America
 

No more "time-outs" for him....time for a final spanking.