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PREST: ‘Lone wolf’ tenor’s fate in hands of Twitterati

With all these Twitters and Facebooks and Pokemons these days, there must be some people who wish they could go back to a time when you could still lead a happy, prosperous life as a tenor while believing that the earth is flat and changing the lyric
Prest

With all these Twitters and Facebooks and Pokemons these days, there must be some people who wish they could go back to a time when you could still lead a happy, prosperous life as a tenor while believing that the earth is flat and changing the lyrics of a national anthem to make a pro-racist stand in front of thousands of people.

Well, there’s at least one person who wishes that.

Up until a couple of weeks ago Remigio Pereira was living a pretty sweet life singing with the Canadian musical group The Tenors. When he wasn’t performing before kings and queens and NHL all-stars, he was busy charming the pants off your grandmother.

Maybe 50 years ago that would have been a pretty sweet setup – a golden voice carrying him to a lifetime of polite applause and backstage groupies who all knew their way around a crochet pattern.

But now there’s this thing called social media on the Internet – a place where anyone in the world can make their views known. Remi liked to go on the Internet and make his views known. And that was fine, up to a point. The earth is flat? Sure Remi, keep on singing.

Big pharm is murdering naturopathic doctors? OK Remi, but do you think you’ll be able to swing by the seniors centre for suppertime – the pudding comes out at 4:30 p.m.

Remi’s rants all seemed to come from a place of love, so where was the harm?

The harm seemingly came when Remi branched out from his own beautiful mind to see what other people were writing about. What’s this hashtag going around – Black Lives Matter?

That sounds nice. But do you know what would be even better? Remi knows what would be better. Remi loves all creatures – that much is clear. I imagine he’s got the phrase “Remi loves all creatures” tattooed somewhere under his tuxedo. And so it should be no surprise that Remi would up the ante on Black Lives Matter to All Lives Matter, including all the different races and creeds and colours and fishies and birdies and those little tufts of grass that grow between your backyard patio stones. It all matters.

So Remi did what he thought was right in personalizing the things he was reading and then spreading his own message to the world – including the phrase All Lives Matter – while performing at the Major League Baseball all-star game. The problem is that Black Lives Matter is generally accepted as a powerful and important protest movement in the United States that voices legitimate concerns about racial inequality and the treatment of black people. All Lives Matter, on the other hand, is generally accepted as a careless or potentially racist way to silence or minimize the concerns raised by the Black Lives Matter movement.

The other big problem for Remi was that he chose to make his All Lives Matter statement by changing the lyrics to “O Canada.”

Wooooo, boy. That did not go well for Remi. His fellow tenors, who say they knew nothing about the stunt before Remi held up a homemade sign and started singing, reportedly spent the next hour and a half whacking him with wiffle bats (metaphorically speaking).

(Whack) “I don’t like your tone, Remi!”

(Whack) “We’re tenors Remi, we’re not supposed to have depth!”

Canadian Twitter and Facebook and Pokemon also erupted with rage, and by the end of the night the other three tenors had apologized for the actions of Remi the “Lone Wolf” and announced that he would be removed from the band indefinitely.

It makes you wonder what would have happened if this took place 50 years ago, at the 1966 all-star game featuring legends like Catfish Hunter, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente. With no Twitter or Facebook, Remi of the 1966 Tenors likely wouldn’t have known about the latest political movement, let alone embarrass himself in front of the great Sandy Koufax by screwing it up in the national anthem. And even if he did, there might not have even been a camera on him, let alone an army of Twitterati ready to throw him over the edge of the earth. He could have just held up his little sign and then when it was all done maybe said a quick sorry to his bandmates if they were upset. And then he could have hopped into a spaceship with Buzz Aldrin and serenaded all the 1966 grandmas from outer space.

Instead, 50 years later, it looks like Remi is out of a job – the Tenors don’t seem likely to invite him back and several upcoming solo gigs have been cancelled. It’s hard to envision him ever selling another ticket in Canada.

The take-home lesson here is that these days when you mess up badly, justice comes swiftly and fiercely. If you get something so impossibly wrong, make a mistake that is so tone-deaf, you’re probably not going to get a second chance. In instances like that, it appears there’s only one thing left for you to do: become the Republican presidential nominee.

Andy Prest is the sports editor for the North Shore News and writes a biweekly humour/lifestyle column. aprest@nsnews.com

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