Politics
On Saturday, October 24th, I posted a small item that got a large and impassioned response.
Headlined Number, the post simply stated "The hungry people in the world are now 1.02 billion."
There was a photo of two starving children in Africa.
In recent days, we have been told in various newspaper reports that a mere one dollar a day from every Canadian could eradicate the housing deficits and homelessness in our country.
Yesterday, the United States took its first tentative step in providing real and affordable health care for more than 35 million of its currently uninsured. Of course, more fighting will occur in the Senate before President Obama will be able to sign this important initiative into law.
What do these three pressing and often depressing stories have in common?
Politics.
Politicians.
Politicians are and have been and apparently will continue to be the single biggest obstacle to human progress.
More often than not, politicians represent the most reprehensible in human nature - greedy, tiny-minded, and self-serving.
So many years ago, Buckminster Fuller declared that if we eliminated politics from the earth, nothing of significance would be harmed or negatively changed; he added that if we eliminated designers and scientists, the world would crumble.
Are there in fact enough food stuffs to feed the human family tonight?
I think there are.
But this tribe hates that tribe and this government is in revolution against that and this corporation is vying for this or that and, after all, guns can be sold.
A friend of mine who raises money for AIDS victims in Africa takes the cash in her hand and gives it directly to the women in the villages, lest it gets "re-directed" by some helpful agency.
Could we house our own here in Canada, including the north?
Sure.
If we really wanted to and didn't let our votes or optics or petty allegiances or plans for the next election interfere with common good sense and good will.
Could the Americans adopt a public health care similar to the one we cherish here in Canada?
Of course they could and should, but that might not serve the Obama-bashers or the Republicans in general or the insurance giants or the rabid anti-socialist day dreamers, who see red at any sign of human kindness.
Of course, I am not suggesting we rid ourselves of these politicians.
But we could do at least two things that might help.
One is pay less attention and the other is pay more.
For the daily grind of headline after headline and column after column and interview after interview about Iggy Pop or Sarkozy or the local goons - JUST IGNORE IT.
These are diversions. You might just as well read something rally weighty like People Magazine or Star.
Blah, blah, blah.
Don't give these suckers the time of day.
On the other hand (to quote a famous milkman), when elections are at hand, this is when we should really get into action.
Challenge these simpletons, ask them the tough questions, assure them that they will not get your votes without real commitment to real programs.
Stop voting for clowns because they have a shiny nose or a big smile and you have some childish idea that they might "be a nice guy."
Last year, a new Vancouver City Council was elected with 30 something per cent of eligible voters showing up at the ballot box.
This is what soldiers died for on foreign fields?
When we welcome new Canadians into the fold, do we encourage them or ask them or demand of them that that they vote, that they carry the democratic dream forward?
5 comments:
Good Post David! I read it twice just to absorb it all. There was alot there to absorb...............
Cheers
David,
I pretty much agreed with most of your comments but I was confused by your last paragraph. Can we really expect more of new Canadians when we set such an apathetic example? What is it that we stand for?
DC
David, this is one of your best blog postings - period. Like Gary L, I'm going to re-read it (several times) and comment on it more in depth, soon. You said and covered so much that I personally think and believe myself that I want / need to reply. I just want to let your comments sink in and in turn mentally word my reply. Once again, a near perfect blog David.
David, our Canaduan politicians are as bad as we allow them to be. We do not vote in numbers that can affect change. We allow a seperatist party to influence the democratic process. We have allowed so many imigrants into the country that one of our three major parties panders to them and that messes up the process.
I suppose that election reform where by our MPs answer to their constituents rather than the party leader might be the answer. BUT to change the system we need the curent group to cause change to the status quo.
Its kind of like trying to move a mountain.
What happens to supposedly smart well meaning men and women when they get themselves voted into Gov't (on any level) ? I'm sure that to a person their initial intentions were good ones.
It seems that no matter what party they are running for, once they win the vote, they become blind, stupid, and more often than not corrupt.
For years I often wondered why the most simple of things can be so screwed up by such a small number of people in power.
Why is it that individuals around the world can basically move mountains, yet, a ruling Gov't chases their tails and screws every single thing they touch.
Maybe if small steps were taken to address issues rather than HUGE, mammoth sized ones that always seem to go off the rails.
Another thing that pisses me off is that there NEVER seems to be a middle of the road party or leader in politics. It seems that it's always 'right' or 'left'. An example of my point is the provincial Gov't's in B.C. and Ontario. In B.C. the extreme is that the Liberals want to cut everything and fund nothing, while in Ontario the Liberals want to spend every last drop of tax payers money they can. They don't know a program or 'study' that they won't through money at. I ask you, where is the middle ? The centre ?
How about somewhere in the centre and then doing what is truly the correct thing to do for the people.
Although I'm not apposed to making money, it almost always seems that money gets in the way of the better good - in pretty much every part of our lives.
I really believe that most Canadians wouldn't mind paying the high taxes we do if they knew for sure that the money would be spent properly and fairly.
And finally, why do we the people put up with all the corruption and BS that these various Gov't's and politicians feed us ? Why do we seem to accept the excuses ?
You may or may not have been a fan of the late John Lennon, but one thing that used to drive him crazy was that people would never stand up and say, enough is enough, you now must do what is right for the people that put you were you are.
I'm afraid that now at this time in my life I find myself feeling the same way. Why are people so stupid and so easily lied to ? Why don't we say, enough is enough ?
Thanks for reading my rants. The sad thing is that after getting all that off my chest, I don't feel any better. Probably because tomorrow when I wake up, it will be the same old drill.
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