Editor,

I was disappointed, though not entirely surprised, to read about Langley’s city council voting down the proposal to fly the Canadian flag in solidarity with our neighbors to the north. The excuse? Fear of drawing attention. Concern for safety. Worries about being “a target.” But if your town has already been visited by ICE, you’re already a target. Keeping your head down doesn’t make you safe it just makes you easy to walk over.

We’re not living through a typical political moment. What’s spreading right now isn’t just partisan ideology, it’s a permission slip for cruelty, for erasure, for authoritarianism dressed up as “tough love” and it spreads exactly like this, one small decision at a time, each justified as “not worth the risk.”

Solidarity isn’t performative when people feel it in their bones. When immigrants, tourists and workers see that flag and know someone thought of them, that’s not “symbolic,” it’s human. That’s the very glue that keeps communities like Langley from collapsing under the weight of the same old fearful story.

What Langley could have done was use this moment to send a signal, not just to our friends up north, but to everyone: immigrants, workers, neighbors; you are seen, you are welcome here, we won’t be cowed. That kind of message matters. It builds resilience. It builds community, and right now, we need both more than ever.

Because the truth is, we don’t get to opt out of this. We are dealing with a well-funded authoritarian movement that feeds on silence, complicity, and fear, and it’s spreading fast. The line is already being drawn. The only choice left is where we stand: behind it, retreating, or in front of it, saying, no more.

Greg Cressler

Oak Harbor