It’s darkest before dawn.

 

It’s darkest before dawn.

Some grownups told me it’s darkest before dawn. Being a curious child, I tried to see for myself but couldn’t. Each night I slept and woke up when it was dawn. Another saying was, “after the darkest storm, there is always a bright new morning.” I could never figure out why it works that way. Why does the world or reality follow some unwritten rule which allows us to have a full life with good and bad things happening and there is always tomorrow? Why can’t I just have good things happen and skip the others? I was bothered because no one could answer those questions. Some people said that God is responsible and others brushed it off, saying that is just the way things are. Everything happens by chance.

Now I have lived longer than the average life span of American men and I still have no answer. I wasn’t avoiding the question, but I can’t find a person who will give me an answer that makes sense to me. Allow me to give an example. For two and a half years, I followed all the government’s and my doctor’s instructions. I lived as if I was in jail to stay alive so I can pay taxes like a good boy. When the government used my taxes to help others who would have starved or got infected, I said nothing. My Federal and Provincial governments made choices, and I honored our elected representatives.

Now the leader of my province changed, without elections or input from over 90% of the people of Alberta, and is changing the rules that her party made. It will be illegal to “discriminate” against folks who chose not to believe that a deadly virus is killing people like me when it obviously does. Here comes a new question to deal with. Can we, as a society, defend ourselves against those who do not follow the laws and possibly change laws to suit themselves?

In my whole adult life, there has been a fight against drinking and driving. Slowly and methodically our society moved towards ridding itself of this damaging practice. Breathalyzers, check stops, arrests, and social pressure all contributed to doing away with driving under the influence. Lives have been ruined by people losing driving privileges, but also lives of victims have been saved. Society didn’t demand to reverse course. We all saw the victims of drunk driving in wheelchairs and coffins, with their relatives crying. Today, no one is bragging about driving drunk, but folks proudly tell that they are not vaccinated. The Premier will hire them to work in the hospital where I must go.

Now we have a situation with a pandemic that killed more people than drinking and driving, but a high-ranking politician gets involved assuming that most of the voting public is anti vaccinations. Nothing new about that group. They existed in the shadows for a long time.

Another politician is bragging about taking away our sports pistols. Illegal handguns are used for crimes, but none of the sports shooters, as far as I know, are committing the offenses. Trudeau is answering the demands voiced by the fake news that convinced hysterical folks that we can remove all the guns from our society. I am all for law and order but watching Ukraine thought me something. It is good for a small nation to have law-abiding citizens who know how to handle and use guns safely.

Our new unelected Premier also is talking openly about disobeying a parliament in which we have our elected representatives. We had a Calgarian Prime Minister for ten years before Trudeau. Does she not understand that if people don’t make changes “legally”, she also will lose whatever power she has quickly?

We may choose to disobey laws restricting the use of single-use plastics. What will happen if the other Canadians choose to ship all their plastic garbage to Alberta? How will it be if Alberta is the only province without $10 a day Day Care? I think we can’t go very far with just hating Trudeau. Some of us should find ways to explain to the rest of Canada why Trudeau is so bad for the country instead.

I would honestly suggest to Miss Smith to work hard and figure out how to make life easier for the people of Alberta and show the rest of Canada the Alberta advantage, which will not be oil. Europe is working hard to move away from oil and gas and it won’t be long before they find it. Perhaps instead of preaching to hate Quebec, we should learn something from them. They set their goals some time ago and worked towards achieving them.

Being a Conservative leader is a dangerous job. Look at Great Britain. We are in some very dark times, just before dawn. What will a bright morning look like? It will be for Alberta to change its focus from pleasing oil giants to building the best province to live in, for all the people who live here. We now have money for the transition period. Let’s use it wisely. Protect the vulnerable, educate the young, and give people the means to build a healthy, diverse economy for the future. Let the next elections be between leaders who will demonstrate care for us, the people who live here.  

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