An Open Letter to Jessica Allen

Dear Jessica:

Well this week has certainly been a crazy one on social media for all of us hockey fans! First of all we had to deal with the fact the Don Cherry was fired from Hockey Night In Canada for making racist comments. When I first heard what Don said, I thought to myself, "Oh dear, Don you got yourself in trouble with messing up your words, again". Because as a hockey fan I have listened to him go off on rants and tangents that made absolutely no sense for years now. However, I always took it with a grain of salt and thought, well he is getting up there in age, and when he went off topic telling a story it kind of reminded me of my grandmother, or perhaps even that "grandfather" or "weird uncle" your panel mentioned, so I got a chuckle from it and moved on! But then something happened on social media and all hell broke loose. And well, you know the rest of that story.

Anyway, Don getting fired is not the purpose of my letter to you. The purpose of my letter is regarding your comments, that have also spread widely on social media. I know that you know exactly what you said, and if you don't remember, well I'm sure you can find it all over social media! However, I'd like to point out that while listening to you and your panel, you said a few things that were much much worse than what Don said. While listening I heard things like "that type of person" and "you people". How is this different than what you are accusing Don of saying? Is it allowed because you were talking about "white privileged boys"? Which by the way, those boys have mom's and dad's. How do you think we felt, when you called them bullies, or less than nice? I have two boys and a husband that play hockey and I can tell you for certain that they are great humans!

I see that you did apologize and I give you credit for admitting your were wrong. However, you said more than calling white male hockey players privileged bullies. You suggested that parents should take their hard earned money and go on a vacation to see the world...eh? This was very demeaning. Why do you think you are so entitled to suggest how anyone chooses to spend their hard earned money? Furthermore, our family has seen a great deal of the world because of hockey. Perhaps you should be a little more open minded or at least stick to commenting on things that you understand. Hockey has given more to my family that you or anyone could ever imagine and for you to question the choices of so many Canadian families, just because you don't like it is just flat out wrong.

Also, I think I do need to remind you that hockey is our National Sport. It is made up of generations of players that are boys and girls by the way and from many races and creeds. Your observation that hockey is for privileged white boys is so very narrow-minded...but yet, it's ok for you to stereo-type? Hockey is also not just a sport, it is a community. It has brought people together for years and years. It's a community that pulls together to help anyone who needs it, a community and a sport that teaches so many life skills like respect, teamwork, work ethic, being a good sport, but most importantly it has helped to teach my boys about being a good person. I remember a hockey coach saying to my son's team one time, "We can't all be great hockey players, but we can all be good people". And I know for a fact that there are many other coaches, parents, volunteers, and yes even Don Cherry who would want that message to be instilled in every hockey player! So when you make a statement insinuating that Don Cherry has bread a bullying culture into hockey players, who are all someone's son, daughter, father, brother, wife, sister...and so on, it is very very very hurtful. I have cheered my boys on for years as they have played this great sport, but when I see or someone shows me evidence of them being a good person, that is when I am the most proud and I am sure there are many other hockey moms and dads that feel the same way.

So to wrap things up, Jessica, I am not writing this letter suggesting that you should be fired, because you made a mistake. But I am writing this letter so that perhaps the next time you prepare your material and form your opinions on future topics, you will put a little more thought into what you want to say. I can see you are passionate about your job as your passion about how you felt about this topic certainly came through while it was being discussed, but let me remind you of a little quote, "Just because you are offended by something doesn't mean you are right".

Yours in hockey,

Juliana

(AKA Very Proud Hockey Mom!)