Seniors fighting for their lives.[

 

Seniors fighting for their lives.[

Nights of White Satin.

It was 1968, and I was driving the old Chevy Nova from Pincher Creek towards the mountains. On the radio, a song, “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues was playing. I was making the biggest decision in my young life. In a while, I would turn 18 and could leave Canada without my parents and go back to Israel. I had friends there, did the tests to get into the Air Force, and economically would have been ahead. My $1.25 an hour here was not hard to beat.

It was evening time and I could see the mountains getting closer, under a full moon. The beauty was overwhelming. My first Christmas in Canada was amazing. A family I didn’t know invited my dad and I to celebrate with them. The Prime Minister of Canada was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. So beautiful, kind, and well-meaning people and, in my future, there was a Canadian girl I was to spend the next fifty years with and I stayed. I never went back, even for a holiday. Canada was my country and Alberta was my province.

Shortly after Canada started Universal Health Care, I was able to go to University at minimal cost and I had religious freedom that was not available in Israel. I had lots of struggles but no regrets until 52 years later in the unforgettable year of 2020. I studied and worked as hard as I could for my place in the new world. To me, the beauty of the place and the people was most important until I heard an American politician say, “It’s the economy stupid.” I am still not fully convinced, but things have changed since 68.

The oil-based economy attracted new people to the province. The good-hearted kind peace-loving hard-working mostly rural people of Alberta became a minority in their own home. New people arrived with intentions of making a quick buck and leaving. Investors came to rip profits and not even stay in the province. They wanted all our services but didn’t care to invest in the future of a province that they just wanted to use. Some only wanted us to propel them into political careers or gain job experience and go home. Home for many of them wasn’t here.

My wife and I paid our dues, worked our hours, and saved for retirement, intending to spend it locally.  Being “snowbirds” never was a choice. Contributing work and treasure to the community was always a budgeted item. We missed the actual point in which Alberta changed.

Just like millions of others, I was disturbed by the steady rise in the gap between the rich and the poor. It didn’t look sustainable. At the same time, I became very aware of how the rising inequality steadily contributed to a rise in conditions endangering the wellbeing of humankind upon our planet.

A sickness came over the land at a time when the economy was overdue for one of its cyclical crashes, particularly damaging for Alberta’s oil-based economy. As often predicted, the oil economy was temporary. Some here tried hard to extract money from our oil, but the world changed. Now the vultures are fighting for what is left. It served to highlight what is the nature of us, the people.

The pandemic disproportionally ravaged the old people like me. Being an old-time Albertan, I expected a united effort to save our lives, but the opposite happened. In July dozens of people began public demonstrations against the most effective way to save our lives, wearing masks. An acquaintance told me, against all evidence, that I can wear a mask, but he is not going to and all will be OK. He backed his idea up with some conspiracy theory cooked up by his money-hungry political organization. Others were commenting on social media that we should be happy to give up our lives for the economy. They were fighting for what they think is “freedom.”

I expected my government to be the voice of reason. The Premier came on with a story about a small business owner begging that her business will not be destroyed. He didn’t say that the government will help and we will all fight together; he sacrificed us, the most vulnerable. No lockdown and no help to those economically affected. No enforcement of wearing masks either. This is the guy who a year ago told Rex Murphy that he wants the Federal government to fight environmentalists in the woods to allow pipelines on their lands. Freedom to risk my life is not as important as the freedom to make money on selling oil to China while providing a few temporary jobs.

What makes sense to me is, we all take action to face the threat. We must use our savings from the good times and borrow if necessary. When the danger passes, we will all start paying back, starting with those who can afford the most and going down. Canada overall is doing it, and now the rest should join in. If we save our small businesses, who mostly volunteer to help, we will soon have a robust economy again.

I don’t feel comfortable complaining a lot. I never expected the world to be perfect. Some seniors are talking about fighting for their lives. I don’t. We would destroy what we worked hard to build. We care about people, even those who fight for their freedom at the risk of our lives. We care about future generations that will happen far after we are gone. Yet, we are not the “do nothing” generation.

We are leaving a much better world to new generations than that which we received. The biggest problem for most is to have enough work. There is an abundance of food and all else if distributed equally. Now please consider letting us live the rest of our lives in peace, enjoying what we have worked and paid for.

A government is not a charity, it is insurance for all the citizens.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

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 [AMP1]