Have we gone nuts?

 

 Have we gone nuts?

I am watching a Canadian reporter filming Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border. They will be ordered to invade a country and kill people using modern war machines that are possibly the best in the world. I look at the faces, mostly boys but some girls. Six months ago they were going to high school and mom was making their lunch.

By the time I see them climbing on tanks, someone has brainwashed them to do the unthinkable. Kill other human beings for; you have guessed it, “freedom.” As far as they know, their neighbours elected a government that will bring enemy nuclear weapons next to their border and their country will have to capitulate to the West and have no freedom. Another aim is denazification. Memory of Nazis doesn’t go away easily. The army in Russia is drafted, not volunteered. The boys and girls have no freedom but fight for freedom. Their leader just threatened to use atomic weapons, which would kill them all.

How does one country take over another? They break its resistance, invade the capital, get rid of the government, and make themselves the rulers. Every country has some people who are not in power, so the invaders come to rescue or liberate them from their so-called oppressors. In Ukraine, they are the Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the east. Here it used to be the French, but now it is the people who don’t want medical-related mandates.

As I and the world were watching, the Russians under Putin’s direction attacked Ukraine. Putin declared parts of the country free states and mounted a massive “military operation,” not a war, to replace the government. Putin went on the airways telling the Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their weapons and join the movement to replace the elected government, who are “drug-addicted Nazis.” A few days before that, the social media in Canada was full of videos of our “Freedom Convoy” supporters doing the same here. We had police officers and soldiers filmed telling our police not to follow orders. In Canada, as in Ukraine, the majority didn’t see it the way the rebels did, but they convinced themselves that mandates are illegal.

It’s important to note the similarities of the two attempts to take over a country and the response. In Europe, getting into a war with Russia may lead to a catastrophic nuclear annihilation of humankind. The West must do something else. Canada and other nations have been supplying weapons, ammunition, and money to Ukraine. This prompted Germany to change its minds and add considerable help. The most relevant action is cutting off monetary connections. Crooks like Putin can’t go on fighting without money.

Here in Canada, when our capital city was taken over and paralyzed by a force demanding to replace the legally elected government, the Prime Minister didn’t want to use the army and hurt the offenders. They were misled, annoying, but peaceful. He chose to go after the money. Using the Emergency act crafted by a previous government, he froze the flow of money that was keeping the protesters at a prolonged state of a party, with entertainment, food, and a lot of noise. This, combined with professional police volunteers from all of Canada, solved the problem in three days.

In Ukraine, it was not as easy. The aggressor is a seasoned politician, a well-established dictator who controls resources that can cripple the world. He is ruthless and has no consideration for people, including his own. Anti-war demonstrations sprung up in all major cities of Russia and were promptly quashed by a police force trained to hurt not to serve. More protests flared all around the world, serving only to harden the resolve of democratic governments to cope with the problem. Ukraine, which considers Canada their best friend, bravely stood up against the tyrant, slowing his advance, allowing the world and the Russian people to regroup and consider what else they can safely do for the best impact.

We just went through some turmoil caused by a virus that kills innocent, helpless people. Our governments at all levels sprung to action, trying to minimize the damage and help us stand up again. They took a big political risk. (I didn’t vote for them, by the way.)

Now more comparison.

In Ukraine, droves of people who never fired a shot are volunteering to a citizens’ army. Old women are making Molotov cocktails. They are franticly running to get defenses ready. Others are helping mothers with kids to get to safety.

I who came from many generations of veterans, lived through wars, and worked hard till I dropped, take my hat off to them.

Here we have a bunch of people who want to party and find health restrictions oppressive. Others wave flags, toot horns, and shout “freedom” while blocking streets and roads, hurting the economy. White supremacists, separatists join them, and I would need the RCMP list to complete the statement. Many just “hate Trudeau” because he is a “dictator” and used a legal act to stop their silliness.

Some hate him since his dad didn’t do what their parents wanted. Well, Patriots, this is a democracy, and not every noisy group of partying protesters gets an audience with the PM. Desecrating a national memorial is not how we do it.

I may ramble, but many people like it. Some of my articles get over 1500 readers plus those who read the paper.

I am a Canadian patriot and would fight shoulder to shoulder with the brave Ukrainians if I could, but I have no respect for little selfish flag-waving “demonstrators” and their makeshift pastors. You love freedom? Go volunteer to help those who fight a real dictator. If Canada had more of an army, I would suggest helping Ukraine. From 2015, when Mr. J. Kenney was minister of defence, we could have built a good defence industry and trained enough people to be on par, at least with Sweden. Sadly, we didn’t, so we can do much less.

Rebuilding a world.

 

 Rebuilding a world.

I am an old man with no power whatsoever. I am not rich, powerful, or influential. Not being “privileged” exposed me in my youth to conditions that now I am paying for with my health. I write a little op-ed for a tiny community newspaper and thanks to my lifelong wife, a few friends, and a social safety net that I and others like me helped built, I can stay alive.

During the occupation of Ottawa by the discontented small percentage of truck drivers and many small groups of agitators from all walks, I learned some things. Mostly, our lives and the existence we enjoy can be shaken and destroyed at any time with little warning.

When a few thousand people get the idea that they were victimized by society, they can upset the whole apple cart. I expected the government of thirty-seven million people to stop things from deteriorating, but it didn’t and a group of people, who remind me of the Taliban in Afghanistan, demanded that the government will resign and they will dictate what will happen. For them, it is freedom, for me, perhaps a life sentence.

When finally the government figured things out, the first thing they did was to distribute a page with a warning. How could they, I ask myself? After all, people know they can’t camp and park on the streets of our capital city and on highways and bridges? I have seen people get tickets for answering their cell phones while driving. Well, a government warning statement, ignored, is still littering the streets. When I am writing these words nothing worst yet happened. (By Sunday they are all gone.)

If I was the Prime Minister, none of those trucks would have been in the capital city and the people who had enough obeying the law would have been mortgaging their trucks and hiring lawyers. Wearing a tiny mask is not like being drafted to go to war, and many have done that for “freedom.” You don’t see a family taking orders from a toddler or a school following instructions issued by grade one students, but here we are doing just that. A self-appointed committee of teamsters can’t run a country, yet we take the time to warn them. They are causing millions of dollars of damage that ultimately, we will all pay for, and we play nice.

I take a critical look at the world I am living in. Sixty years ago, I heard people say that some bad guys (and some good guys) had bombs that could destroy the only planet we have. They have a lot more now. Fifty years ago, there was talk about us being destroyed by making too much garbage and pollution which may kill us in time, and we have much more now. Old people told us kids that we should protect ourselves from diseases that kill millions and we didn’t.

More than half of what humanity’s work is producing is for wars or for a relatively small group of people to enjoy, while it forces the rest to live on the edge.

Lately, events took shape, making it clear that humans must change direction. I am sitting here in a little mountain town, watching. A pandemic happened as if to show us what it can do. Millions already died, but those who are untouched are demanding not to be inconvenienced by it. We know that a worst virus could happen at any time, but we are told “to learn how to live with it,” as if we can.

The two superpowers who possess most of the world’s killing machines are facing off threatening war and people are arguing over who has the “biggest button.” The pollution that we produce overcame the Earth’s natural defenses, and the climate is becoming hostile to humans while we are arguing about who is at fault. Just like kids on the playground, we are pointing fingers, crying, “he started it.” Some people have so much money that they don’t have a clue how to use it, while many others work two or three jobs and live on the streets in tents. Each nation is trying to pretty up their place, ignoring the others who are camping in poverty-stricken camps outside their borders. The leaders are “protecting the health care system” not the people who die in terrible agony in it, cared for by ever-dwindling overworked workers.

I am afraid that these latest events will not just further divide us, but teach us to be militant. A cornered animal is always dangerous since it has nothing to lose. There is a song doing the rounds on the net called “The cry-baby caravan.” Now when the safety measures are being hastily removed thanks to a so-called protest of an un-vaccinated few, groups that want Alberta to leave confederation, and other fringe anti-government clubs, we look and learn how it’s done.

What’s left at this point is the question of what should we do when this is all over. We are bound to repeat mistakes if we don’t learn from them. If I survive or not, I want a better life for my grandkids and great-grandkids. No guarantees, but a better chance.

To me, the path is clear. We have a world full of resources and we have our work and ability to make things. We must find a way to reward all people for their contribution, large and small. Elon Musk should be compensated for his hard work and exceptional abilities, but so should the barber or the single mother. She may not be as gifted, but she possibly works harder than Elon and should share in the bounty. When she does, she will contribute to the economy without killing herself. Even the neediest people have something to contribute. The most famous people can’t do what they do without the contributions of the many little people who, a little at a time, make the greatest things happen.

Denialism Convoy.

 

Denialism Convoy.

In the beginning, the world woke up to a reality that humankind gained an unknown threat, a pandemic. Many medical professionals were very knowledgeable about how to handle it. No longer do humans believe the devil is punishing us or that black magic and witches are involved, but a few Flat-Earthers types and their likes looked for a scapegoat to sacrifice. Big business and their champion in Washington strove to convince people that nothing is wrong and that lives are not as important as the stock markets. The virus killed many of our parents and grandparents. We isolated and appreciated those who risked their lives to save ours.

Soon, the storytellers invented stories that it was all a hoax and hid the bodies pretending they didn’t exist. There is no pandemic and almost a million Americans didn’t die. Sure. The selfish and the healthy fought against masks. 

In New Zealand, a lady Prime Minister called the shots. She closed the borders and did what was necessary. Now they opened up with no worries. They reported 53 deaths.

In Canada, we have a “Sunny ways” Prime Minister. He invested heavily in vaccine development and was told to wait his turn when we had one. Canada lost over 35,000 souls, some from hunger and neglect in their care homes. The provincial leaders responsible for health partied it up to the last moment and blamed the PM for the deaths. I was watching a horror show. Onwards we went, slowing the virus down some, reopening and losing more people, repeat. The big neighbour down from us was doing much worse. Freedom, as some call it, played skillfully against us. China succeeded where we were failing, but who wants to be like China? Not me. Now someone was paying for propaganda, convincing people not to use the vaccines. The people were divided. 

There is no way to get all our stories to match. The people in charge take action and the rebels counter the information with made-up stories. Since the old and weak suffered most, many people wanted to abandon caution and let them die. They, after all, have served their purpose. Preachers ignored Christian teachings advocating helping the needy and hollered about the loss of freedom, or money in collection baskets.  

I spent a lifetime advocating for freedom and equality. Being trained as a historian, I am convinced that inequality breeds discontent, causes revolutions and wars, damaging the human fabric. Politicians said we must learn to live (Or die) with COVID.

We are designed and created to act like brothers and sisters or perish by our own hands. The dinosaurs ate each other with no empathy and are gone. The God I believe in is trying to raise creatures in His image, but our free will makes our survival rest on our ability to learn. Fascists believed in the “strongest survive” principle and destroyed themselves. Americans, after the last big war, learned the lesson. After the war, they applied the Marshall Plan, helping the enemy regain the ability to succeed and achieved the north Europe of today and the new Germany that we all envy. A country that was monstrous for a while is now an example of how to do well with what we have. Japan also demonstrates the principle. East Germany under Communism didn’t do well.

I believe in the rights of minorities and in keeping our freedom. I don’t believe in terrorizing people or demanding that an elected government will resign and let any who want to rule the country do it. Nor do I want some corporate power to take over and wring every penny from those who have no power. I don’t want people who don’t care about the country or the world to lead me. Never do I advocate using force, but we must be ready to fight for justice. Not fight for the right to enjoy the sufferings of others but to fight for those who can’t do it for themselves. I never know when I will be in their place. I know we will all get old and don’t wish to be disposed of. 

I know that before Trump, people didn’t make denialism their favourite religion, and they believed in science. What will happen now if a new variant of the virus attack? It is very possible. The governments will hesitate to act. Soon it will be out of control and people will die in the streets without medical help. The economy will collapse and countries not paralyzed by denialists will wait a bit and just march over and take what they want. It will not be “freedom”, it will be free.

This continent was taken over before when pandemics killed the original populations, and it can happen again.

I am not fear-mongering and I don’t wish to spoil anybody’s fun. I know that science is true and that Buckley’s taste is horrible but stops the cough.  

We have a group of us ready to destroy the country crying that their freedoms are taken away. A few are chronic cases of phobia-inflicted individuals worried about needles and some are using kids as human shields. OK, let them be if we must, but let’s not destroy democracy over it. Just consider the other options. 

What is encouraging in this bleak picture is the rise of patriotism. 

On my drugstore calendar from Coleman, Tuesday, February 15th is Canada flag day. 

People this year began celebrating it two weeks prior. I had never seen such a display of Canadian flags before. Canadians realize that we have a beautiful country where there is freedom and are displaying the red maple leaf with pride. Thanks, Canadians, it’s good to be here. You could have been in Russia, China, or even North Korea instead. We never choose where or when we are born, but we, all of us, lucked out. Where else we could have had so much time and “freedom” to party for days in the capital city?

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

Freedom. (and Justice.)

 

Freedom. (and Justice.)

The year was 1974, and I asked people if they knew of a nice place I could take my girlfriend, now my wife, for a memorable dinner. It was to be a special time, and I was willing to spend a week of my wages. They told me of a great place on McLeod Trail. I made a reservation, and we got dressed and went. There was a bit of a lineup and I was behind a couple of First Nations people, perhaps entertainers. He had a three-quarters-length buckskin jacket decorated with beadworks and beautiful jet long black hair. The bouncer at the door stopped him, placing one arm across the door, and said, no hippies. The aboriginal man just turned around and he and his girl left. We were next. The bouncer looked at me and said, no blue jeans allowed. He pointed at a sign saying no shirt, no shoes, no service. I had a shirt and shoes and my blue jeans were new off the rack. We went somewhere else.

I came to Canada on a plane in 1967. I was a kid, and I was seated between two chain-smoking adults. Commercials about cigarette smoking said it makes you a man. I didn’t dare to feel bad about the smoke, but it was hard to breathe. A few years later I was smoking myself, a pipe. I liked people coming over saying how much they enjoyed the aroma, and my hero Albert Einstein used one.

A few years later, we were barred from smoking in most places and sat in “smoking sections” later sent outside and later told to stay a good distance from public doorways. No freedom.

I will not bore you with seatbelts laws, restrictions on firearms, drinking, and driving, or any of the other freedom restrictions. Even feeding stray cats or having hummingbird feeders are now illegal, and letting your chihuahua run in a park is a problem but, what the heck. We are the “free world” and China is the “oppressed people.” Our officials boycotted the Olympic games to show them who is boss. The Chinese said the Olympics are not about politics and invited the Russian president instead. We know that if we couldn’t beat Afghanistan in 20 years, we better not pick a fight with Russia and China and they know it too.

In my lifetime, China rose from a starving backward place exploited by western empires to the fastest growing economy in the world. They doubled their life expectancy, while ours is dropping, and their middle class has doubled in size in just a few years. Some people had to give up some “freedoms” but overall they are doing not so bad. We who have freedom ship them raw materials and buy from them goods and junk produced in “Our” factories over there. Their lack of freedom doesn’t prevent them from buying our best houses and resources. The crucial difference is that their billionaires are not holding up most of their money. If we compare their Uyghur population to our native population, we may be surprised.

Back to “freedom.” Yesterday I saw in Coleman a snowplow driving slowly with a banner saying “freedom.” The driver looked smug, searching for demonstrators to cheer for him. Considering that most of us here are older and many have some preexisting health conditions, I didn’t see cheering adoring crowds. We also don’t know how to get money from rich Fascists to destabilize our democracy. Unfortunately, our Premier was told another story and publically caved in.

Witnessing the fall of his Federal Party’s leader and the surrender of his neighbor east from here, he grabbed the stage, promising to remove restrictions from Alberta and force municipalities to do the same. This is a repeat of his “best summer ever” fiasco on steroids. Unfortunately, some of us will pay with our lives for his mistakes and all of us will pay economically. Well, he is worried about the few unvaccinated truckers blocking a highway and the uninformed farmers supporting them ready to fight.

In reality, this caving into minority misinformed groups that block major export routes to get their way is setting a dangerous precedence. It encourages people to break the law if they can gather a few friends and act. Wearing a mask in public or getting vaccinated hurt no one, but not getting feed for your livestock or losing full shipments of farm produce does.

Canadian soldiers fought, suffered, and died, so we Canadians will have “freedom.” Now demonstrators against measures to protect us from a health disaster are pissing and dancing on their graves. They are eating steaks and roasting pigs paid for by far-right unnamed “donors.” They bask in glory by the admiration of students who only want to party and don’t care about health care workers and other law-abiding essential workers.

At these hard times, we must do a critical assessment of the situation. We live in an older community and many have vulnerable relatives and loved ones. I am compromised. My neighbour has an older mother in long term and so it goes. If restrictions are removed and municipalities lose their “freedom” to make rules relevant to the area, some will be in ICU, others will die and nurses will quit. I know some who are seriously contemplating it. When we open up prematurely again, the few votes of loud far-right visionaries will not count for much.

I am against forced vaccination, but we were railroaded into the situation and I wish to stay alive. I don’t care about Trudeau, yet he is cornered now. The standoff must end before it ruins the country. Sadly, some hard-working good drivers will pay. They can tell the media that they are moving out to save the suffering Canadians, not the arrogant leader. They should take the vaccine and remain our heroes. There will be a Liberal leadership review some time and drivers don’t forget.

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

Do you remember?

 

 Do you remember?

A lot of wonderful conversations begin with a question. Do you remember? Strangely, two people who were in the same place at the same time often remember two different things. I never believed it until they proved it to me beyond any shadow of a doubt. Sadly, we tend to use what we remember to shape the future.

I watched a video showing a Postman some years back. Do any of you remember the postman? It was a person who walked from house to house delivering the mail. He had a simple job, but everyone knew him. He also knew the entire community and could tell you if Mrs. Johnson two blocks down is doing OK or needs help. He knew who was in love with whom or if someone was having an affair. I still remember that we all had a mailbox by the door and if we missed the mail carrier, we checked the box over and over.

Another was the milkman. Most people didn’t have a fridge and fresh milk was delivered to the “Milk shoot”. Another place where people met was the Barber Shop or its equivalent for ladies. This was the place where people waited together and discussed local politics and important stuff. If you wanted to know who has the best chance of becoming the next Mayor, you went for a haircut.

Every few blocks, there was a grocery store, a butcher shop, and a vegetable store. No one in their right mind would dream of hitching up horses or starting a car to shop for everyday needs. Bigger places had specialty stores, like a candy store, sewing, and notions or even a clothing store, often together with a seamstress and a tailor. There was a shoemaker, mostly for repairs, but he could “build” a new pair of shoes.

The guys met during the day at the garage or mechanic shop and later at the tavern. Money was at the local bank, not on a plastic card, and the Post Office was a serious government institution, not a tool of Amazon. Most places had a local newspaper or two, plus a community bulletin board. The newspaper had comments not only about local events but also about the rest of the country and the world. They reflected local opinions and sometimes formed them. Their integrity was important. That’s why often there were two or more.

Rightly or wrongly, people were often attached to their family groups. One cared about the family name. On Sunday, they would show up at church wearing their “Sunday’s Best” and marched in to the sound of bells. That was a community. After service, friends would frequent local restaurants or coffee shops, and plans were made for the coming week.

It was families, communities, towns, and cities that formed societies. I remember from history lessons that the Crowsnest Pass was known for miner’s strikes and for being a Red Place. Here was a center of the Communist Party of Canada, and some street names commemorated it.  

Strangely, history doesn’t remember this beautiful place as a revolution cradle but as a place where people fought and won human rights. It was a place that broke prohibition.

Things began to change. We started to value money more than community. Didn’t want to pay ten cents more for an item available in a store close to home or pay more for a car made in Canada. All the little businesses went under to be replaced by big business from somewhere else. Each time there was a saving to begin with and less service or community. The factories moved overseas and you could no longer get shoes made for you. You couldn’t get freshly baked bread either.

Took a while to realize that all those little business owners were friends and neighbours and they moved to city jobs. The streets became empty and parking lots got bigger. For a while, big stores employed friends and neighbours, but they went under as things came by mail. All that time, fewer people around us could make a decent living and others did in other countries. They came as tourists to look at our ruined communities.

We paid a heavy price for getting more for less and shopping where the lowest price is the law. We pay less, but we have no service. We don’t know the store owners and they don’t come to our church anymore. Most places don’t have a little newspaper discussing local affairs and the average wage is barely enough to live on. Hardly any of our kids live close to home and when they get holidays, they “travel” making other countries rich. We end up in Care Homes where someone counts how many bites we eat. Everywhere is “self serve” and we chose which garbage we will throw out. The packaging, delivery of what we buy and the marketing cost more than the items. Our average income ends up in the landfill heap while the quality of life diminishes. In the city, you don’t even know who lives three doors down.

I miss the postman and the neighbours who used to drop by for coffee. I loved knowing my neighbours and paying for their work as they paid for mine. Now I see us moving to work from home. Immediately home prices go up.

We allowed the market to rule and depleted our resources, poisoned our environment, and isolated ourselves.

I think that the experiment of governments running everything (Communism,) didn’t work. The experiment of the Market dictating everything (pure Capitalism,) didn’t work either. The natural way of family, community, and a little bit of both is the best. We do best living in the balance.

It’s time to reevaluate how we want to be and head that way. It won’t work unless we decide that it’s the best and believe that we can do it. Like all things, it will start with a seed and grow if we help it.

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

Aged and Compromised, in a pandemic.

 

Aged and Compromised, in a pandemic.

I live in paradise and don’t crave travelling or any other modern temptations. All my working years I managed on less, paid for a pension, and planned for the “golden years”. Now I reside in a little home in the forest on the Canadian Rocky Mountains, in a historical little town that provides what I need. The pension is enough for food and taxes, a working vehicle, and health needs not covered by our Universal Health Care program.

I paid cash for my education, lived modestly, and raised two self-sufficient kids. I took no government assistance like unemployment and regularly donated much more than the taxes consider a write-off and I still do. As I am getting older, I need some help with difficult tasks so I save to pay for it. Never went on a cruise or even visited my birth country. I am a happy Canadian who loves the snow on the mountains and the Alpine meadows in the summer.

Not in my wildest dreams did I consider having to put up with a killing pandemic in my old age, but if it’s here, I am willing to do my best and not only survive but help to curb the spread, even if it’s inconvenient. Took my vaccinations, wore a mask the few times I went out and promoted responsible behaviour. Here I ran into snags.

I live in a world of people who are motivated by reasons that I don’t consider important. Some believe that they can wish the reality to be different and want all of us to do the same. They want to “enjoy life” and if compromised people like me will die as a result, so be it. Others simply resent anyone telling them what to do, regardless of the reasons. I understand both but wish to stay alive and enjoy what I worked and saved for.

The campaign to risk death is not just an opinion expressed by a few but a well-organized and financed effort backed up with lawyers, organized public protests, marketing, and politicians motivated by political donations. For two years, while I sat in what is almost house arrest, I have been racking my brain trying to figure out who has an actual reason to promote against safety and responsible behaviour. I finally got a clue.

It came from a film published after the second world war. It is a 10-minute film called Disabled Holocaust. Apparently, the Nazis before and during the war exterminated disabled people and others who were not contributing to the economy. Sadly, it even included their own maimed soldiers from the fight in Stalingrad. The program was secretive to avoid public outcry. The liberation soldiers exposed it, including Canadians. Fifty years ago, there were still a considerable number of survivors of eugenics.

We may consider this a weird, ugly phenomenon that existed in prewar Germany, but we have our own skeletons to deal with. Eugenics was considered “science” here and in other enlightened countries. Alberta and BC had a program to sterilize humans of lesser value (Handicapped) right until 1972. I remember the news discussing the end of the program and the people who witnessed that it was not always voluntary. I knew a person who was rumoured to have been a victim of the program.

We live in a wonderful country amongst people whom the world calls nice. Yet prewar Germany was known to be a most civilized country and their advanced science still serves us today. NASA became what it is using ex-German scientists. The Russian technological advancements were built around other German inventors. Can nice people be cruel to their own? Ask the veterans who proudly display stickers that say, “Lest we forget.”

I walk away thinking that I may have found a reason why some mystery people are organizing and financing a campaign against vaccinations. COVID is a light flulike sickness for healthy strong people and a natural killer for those who cost money to health care and possibly increase taxes.

What people don’t consider is the reason why we take care of those who need help. It’s as easy as understanding how insurance works. You don’t even have to consider Christian or religious morality. We will all get old someday. Many of us may find ourselves disabled at some point in life. The wealth we accumulate may dissipate fast if some conditions change. Best financial planning is not guaranteed to save us from all possible events in life. If we are thinking as Hitler did, we should consider what his end was like and how he is remembered. Christ advocated helping the needy, not being greedy, and billions of people follow him thousands of years later.

Others may seed weeds amongst our crops. China is keeping itself almost COVID-free. Could they be sabotaging the west? I don’t know, but someone is financing the efforts to fight against vaccinations and to open the economy prematurely again and again. The pandemic would have been just a memory by now if we tried harder and were less concerned about profits. I am not talking about restaurant owners but those with shares in large Pharmaceuticals.

COVID is stealing my retirement years and exposing some negative aspects of our society, perhaps for good reasons. On the other hand, some of what is happening may be a good thing. It is showing how we undervalued some workers who should be paid more. Now, with trucking problems, it shows that we should grow and make things at home and pay what it’s worth. The governments are learning that teachers and nurses are important for the well-being of society and the economy. We are learning that care homes shouldn’t be a revenue generator but necessary social service.

Below our gaze, there is a new generation. For the first time, the young are teaming up with the old going against the dividing forces for no less than a better world for all.

What happens when safety and freedom conflict?

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

Coal versus Water. Who wins?

 

Coal versus Water. Who wins?

I first heard about the Crowsnest Pass in University history lectures. The coal miners made the news by organizing some bitter strikes demanding human living conditions and there was a mention of the women of the Pass being very brave standing by their men. Archived Calgary Herald editions showed pictures. Much later, after coal mining stopped, I found myself seated next to an elderly woman in Chris’ Restaurant. She wanted to talk.

I expected her to be upset over the ending of coal mining, but the opposite was true. She lived her whole life in Coleman and she told me the horrors of coal mining. She lost the men of her family to something called black lung. The “Laurentian Elites” Canadian owners of the mines mistreated her. She cried, describing how she worked so hard to do the wash by hand and it would all turn black while they did some process in the tipple. Her life was centered around fluctuating coal prices that she was expected to absorb by not feeding the kids.

I was reminded of her story by letters to the last Pass Herald of 2021. There was a doctor who treated the victims of coal. Because he used handouts from rich coal mining companies to obtain hospital equipment, he was deemed an untrusted source. I remember him coming from home at night to save my life when I had double pneumonia.

There was a letter from a person who used to work on the tipple in Coleman. He blamed everything under the sun on the loss of coal mining. Car dealerships left. I remember when the big car manufacturers closed down little town dealerships all over, not just here. He talked about the closing of grocery stores. I asked the owner of the last grocery store why he was closing down. He said that people here were shopping in Walmart and Costco expecting him to be a convenience store with big store prices. “I am tired of playing this game,” he told me.

I asked around how come we don’t have wind power generation here in the mountains. I was told that whenever businesses expressed interest in opening in the Pass, our local councils chased them out. You tell me if it’s true.

Now the talk of the town is “we want coal back.” A foreign company moved the golf course and donated some money so everyone is fighting for coal. “I love Pass coal” signs are everywhere. If any of you want some I have a big pile here.

The West was opened up not because of coal but because of farming and a threat that the US will take it if it wasn’t populated quickly. Canadian agents went around the world looking for immigrant farmers “with strong backs.” South Alberta had land but was too dry for cultivation. Mormons from the US who knew how to build and use irrigation canals were recruited and did green up the land. It was later that coal became a commodity and was discovered in Lethbridge and the Crowsnest Pass. Oil and gas came later.

We have all of it. The actual fight now is not between coal lovers and a few ranchers situated above mediocre coal reserves, but about water versus strip mining. We love to accommodate those who romanticize the days of coal mining, but the most valuable resource we have here is the Crowsnest and adjacent mountains water. We will not see a government that’s lacking popularity take the side of 6000 people against one-third of the province.

I could be wrong, but I heard that there are people who own and sell water rights to the folks down river and that they are taxed by the government. I am not against or for coal, but a little bird told me that water is very important. Water wars are going on in the world and there will be more to come. I have been in wars and I didn’t like it. I also know that those who cause wars are most often not those who fight them.

In my opinion, the government should make sure that the guardians of the water, us,  receive proper benefits for doing so from those who enjoy it. We are here in the playground of southern Alberta. With some compensation, we could develop the place to be a world-class tourist destination that will outlast any temporary mining industry. We are fighting for our survival and we need help. That should be more than some philanthropic handouts.

Right now we have trails, lakes, and minor tourist attractions. With some imagination, the little historical towns can become the biggest historical landmark in Canada. All aspects of the place, restaurants, movie theatres, hotels, and places to shop could be made into a historical marvel better than Heritage Park and Calloway Park put together. It’s all here and we could add fireworks shows every last day of the month. We could buy and move Heritage acres to a location where people will see it. Above it all, the people who don’t want to change could be put on display and live out their dream of living in the past.

Businesses under the right leadership can import handmade goods from all over the world supporting poor, less advanced places and old-style craftspeople. What we need is seed money and political will. That can be done with a well-organized marketing plan.

Imagine a historical main street with horses and buggies, a windmill grinding flower for your stone oven bread, and young page boys selling old-looking Pass Heralds printed by a widow on an old press. People speaking foreign languages staying in a hotel by mineral springs and a steam locomotive pulling a pioneer train. A native cultural centre where you can learn how to smoke tan hides and smell the sweet aromas from pre-European days.

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