Discontent

I pondered on what to use for the title of this blog because I don’t want red flags waving inappropriately as I talk about things like white supremacy, racism, gun violence and other civil unrest. News programs “discuss” this regularly and the solution, “they” seem to believe, starts with awareness. Awareness? Are you kidding me; I think we all are aware that children are being shot in schools, synagogues, mosques and churches have all been assaulted. I think we are all AWARE.

Yes, I get a little incensed at the shallowness of analysis but that doesn’t mean that I have the answer. Or rather, I didn’t feel that I had an answer (as my last blog noted). But I began to recall a conversation I had with a fellow NDP’er back in 1993 when I was a candidate and the lightbulb turned on for me, again. When it comes to people’s discontent we have to look at the true source of that discontent and the answer – whether they realize it or not – is poverty. Poverty can take many forms, it isn’t just a case of a person being homeless or starving. It can be a case of under-employment, of working several jobs and still not having enough money to pay the rent and buy food. It can be a middle class person who has a decent job but still cannot afford to send their children to college. It can be college graduates who are loaded down with debt and they also are under-employed despite that expensive education. It can be feeling insecure about how long you may have your job and then when “refugees” come into the country you fear that you will lose your job to cheap labour.

Business and government need to address the employment gap in a new way which includes fair wages, benefits and good hours. There are huge opportunities to build jobs while tackling some of the major issues of our day such as renewable energy (to combat climate change) and infrastructure to protect vulnerable areas from flooding. Another huge issue is how to deal with the incredible amount of garbage that results from packaging. I was absolutely staggered a few years ago when I learned that Canada had been “exporting” garbage to China, the Philippines and other areas for decades! Recently I learned that it wasn’t just garbage but our recycling was also being exported. What is the point of everyone recycling when we are creating an even larger footprint but shipping this stuff overseas (and let’s not kid ourselves, all that plastic in the ocean is NOT coming from tourists throwing straws overboard but dumping of said garbage)?

Another little factoid that should rile people up is how much taxpayer dollars is used for various types of research as well as developing infrastructure only to then have the benefits turned over to private corporations who reap billions of dollars (and don’t pay taxes, just to add insult to injury).

There are a lot of areas that need fixing but first of all we need to be AWARE.

Did I just say that?

A Grain of Salt

I looked out the window and for a minute I thought I saw a horse! It turned out to be some kind of worker for the gas company but what they were doing in the field across the way is somewhat puzzling. However it made me laugh a little at my so called improved vision! Despite new glasses I find I cannot see well whether I am reading, writing on the computer or looking out at long distances (never been good at that even with other glasses). I have probably made more U-turns than most people because I see the road sign just as I am passing through the intersection (one of the reasons why I really dislike travelling somewhere that I don’t know).

We all have our little handicaps, foibles and negative stuff but I think it is good to make fun of those areas in our life where we are not stellar. A sense of humour is one of the greatest gifts God gave us and I am certainly very grateful that I have a good strong sense of humour.

I was repeating to Mom something Dad said many years ago, speaking specifically about our family. He said that we had (in Danish) “fine feeling” and what he meant by that was that we could have sensitive feelings. While I find that I can be hard-nosed about many things and let things roll off me I can also be sensitive to criticism (who can’t).

And that’s why I take most things with “a grain of salt”.

Is Art Sacred?

Since the Charlottesville tragedy there has been a lot of talk about Confederate statues apparently strewn willy-nilly all over the South.  As I haven’t visited the South I don’t know about all that but I have to say I can smell bullshit from a mile away.  Here’s what I want to say about that, and I am really very sorry if I am wrong or offending folks but I am saying this from what I have seen and heard over my 64 years of living, never, until Charlottesville have I heard any black celebrity (or non-celebrity – but who hears those folks?) say “I am really intimidated when I walk by a statue of Robert E. Lee.  It makes me think of my ancestors and the slave days.” Or words to that effect.

Now even Whoopi Goldberg, a woman I really respect, says she has felt it.  I say bullshit.  I don’t think anything intimates Whoopi, for one thing, and if she did I’d like to know why she hasn’t spoken out about all those apparently endless statues in the South?

So that is part of what I want to ask / say.  The other part is this, statues that have been carved in stone or cast in iron are, in my opinion, works of art and I have a real problem with art being destroyed.  When I heard about ISIS blowing up ancient sculptures and works of art in the Middle East I was appalled.  I was irritated when folks in Nova Scotia wanted to take down Cornwallis’ statue because he had endorsed the scalping of Indians.  Why are our Aboriginal people suddenly talking about this political correctness now?  Why not create another statue and put it next to Cornwallis and tell the other side of the story?  Why are we whitewashing (sorry for the unintended pun) history?  Doesn’t this all smell a little like Nazi Germany? 

The other day I heard they were removing a Dr. Seuss exhibit that showed a Chinese person as a caricature type which is being denounced as racism.  I’m thinking, it was made in 1937 where lots of different cultures were harpooned by the WASP community.  Leslie Ford, the mystery writer, always referred to her cook as her “coloured cook” or her “coloured maid”; not just a maid.  Agatha Christie stereotyped Jews, Greeks, Swedes, and other cultures in a very WASP kind of way.  Ditto Georgette Heyer and others from that era.  Are we going to start burning or banning their books because they wrote how they saw things in the 1920’s or 30’s?  They don’t show westerns anymore because they kill a lot of Indians.  So we are supposed to forget that we had heinous ideas and practices because we want to sooth peoples’ feelings? 

I don’t get it.  I don’t understand why we have to suddenly ignore history.  I think it is too much political correctness and it is also too much about distracting us from the real issues of today.  Let’s talk about the FACTS, that things haven’t really changed and we have a total nut job in the White House and his cohorts in Congress and the Senate are not a lot better who seem to enjoy fanning flames of dissention.  It’s okay to own submachine guns but God forbid that a woman should have access to birth control or an abortion.  It’s okay to own guns but journalists should keep their mouths shut and just let the nut job tweet any sort of message he likes.  Let’s shutdown a sexual assault victim’s Twitter account because she’s speaking out about the abuse but let’s keep the nut job ranting about the other nut job over in North Korea.

Does any of this stuff make sense to you?  I may be wrong about what those statues represent to some folks but taking out a wrecking ball is not really the answer to what is going on in America, Canada and the rest of the world.  In this age of supposed communication no one seems to know how to talk in a rational, adult sort of way about the Real Stuff, what’s wrong in the world, how can we be civilized with each other?  How can we get to the point where we can Live and Let Live?  Why can’t we be different without offending the bloody crap of the next guy?

Well, this is a long ramble and again, I am sorry if I am offending folks but I am asking more questions than calling it like I see it.  I just want to know – what’s really going on with folks.  Because at the end of the day I believe most people just want to live their lives and be happy.  They don’t want confrontation.  Who needs it?