My March 5th column, "Sunday Showdown between Affiliation Quebec and Jeunes Patriotes", generated numerous angry emails from some English readers, including Affiliation Quebec leader, Allen Nutik.

I can assure you that in my years as a columnist, I've received just as many angry letters from French readers, because choosing to see the bigger picture in turn brands you as "too afraid and too stupid" by Affiliation Quebec and a "maudite anglophone" by hardline separatists.

There are many of you out there who feel your rights have completely been trampled on. While I have no reason to doubt that your frustration is real, I don't feel that way. I've never felt like I was a 'second class citizen', never failed to get a job, never been to a hospital where a doctor was unable to speak to me in English. Readers can tell me otherwise, but that's my reality and I can't invent a different one to suit someone's purposes.

That being said, it would be foolish of me to assume that my personal experience negates the experiences of so many anglophones in Quebec. There are ridiculous and petty things that take place in this province (on both sides of the linguistic fence) that sometimes leave me scratching my head or mad as hell, but since I also follow the French media closely, I know the extreme cases perplex moderate francophones as well.

The problem with living in a linguistic ghetto (no matter the language) is that it creates a vacuum where one side --one solitude-- exists without any understanding, comprehension, respect and empathy for the other.

Being an allophone and someone who has spent a good chunk of my life abroad, I sometimes feel removed from the French-English linguistic debate taking place ad nauseum here. As a result, my perspective is one of detached objectivity, which often doesn't lend itself to two-page tub-thumping diatribes about the loss of English rights or the imminent danger the French language is in. I'm not saying my view is more 'evolved'; I'm saying it's less inclined to attach itself to knee-jerk reactions to the politics of division. Paradoxically, and while Affiliation Quebec and the Jeunes Patriotes would have me believe otherwise, nowhere in Canada do I feel more at home than right here in Quebec.

Buddhism states that "we see as we are". If you live your life with a linguistic chip on your shoulder, than you seek out everything that will validate your belief. If you're a francophone who believes that the English are the enemy, than everything you see, hear and read will be perceived as such. If you're an anglophone who feels that your rights have being trampled on, that's all you see.

Personally, I think we should all get with the times. The sentiments and feelings of alienation expressed in Pierre Vallière's “Nègre blanc d’Amérique” have no reason to resonate or apply to today’s francophones, and if they do, we should ask why. Affiliation Quebec certainly has a right to express itself in a democratic society, but inviting Galganov (a man francophones positively have an allergic reaction to) to speak on anglophones' behalf, is a silly move, serving only to provoke.

Choosing to knowingly perpetuate the politics of discord and division is what groups like Affiliation Quebec, the Jeunes Patriotes, the FLQ, Canadians against Enforced Bilingualism and English Language Advocates (the last two operating out of Ottawa) to name a few, are all about and I would rather focus on moderation than spend my time chasing my tail and engaging in the same old tired debates.

Ultimately, when I write an editorial, I don't expect that everyone’s going to agree with me. But that’s not really the point of an opinion column, is it? To paraphrase New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Anna Quindlen, “The point is not to make the readers think like me. It is to make them think”.

That’s exactly what a column should aim to do. Sometimes it can solidify your beliefs, but mostly, it should make you call into question some of them. So it doesn't matter if you don't agree with everything I say. I’m not here to “make nice”; I’m here to make you think. Apparently, I'm also here to make you angry.