Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WHAT CAN WE MAKE OF THIS ?":
The loss of trust or even hope sometimes is reflected in the declining # of voters/ I have no idea how to remedy the
The loss of trust or even hope sometimes is reflected in the declining # of voters/ I have no idea how to remedy the
situation.
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 24 March 2015 at 08:35
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 24 March 2015 at 08:35
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There is a major factor at play. People really need to believe in leaders. It's a double-edged sword. Trust is easily given because of the need.
If it's not valued, it is easily betrayed.
Life is tough for most people. Elected officials are required not to make things harder.
It is a compelling need and anger knows no bounds if trust is betrayed.
A civil society needs to respect its institutions.
When a law is passed government needs to know it is accepted.
It is the definition of democracy. An entire population cannot be forced into respecting a bad law. No army is big enough to enforce a bad law. It will be challenged and fail.
Like people cannot be forced to use clear plastic bags for garbage if it makes no sense.
Most of us can't be persuaded we should be taxed to buy culture for others.
But If a Mayor thinks it's a lovely idea and can manipulate things his way and the tax is imposed on the rest of us whether we like it or not then we have the stirrings of insurrection.
Ferguson is a tragic case in point. Two policemen have been shot. The Police Chief has had to resign. The Mayor's position is not secure.
A study shows systemic racism exists in the police force? Was it also in the grand jury that found no fault with the shooting of an unarmed youth? What might the same group say about the random shooting of two policeman ?
Will the grand jury be next to fall? Where will it stop? What will it take to return Ferguson to the quiet orderly community it
was thought to be?
From a distance, it seems ordinary Americans have had much to endure in the last ten years. Rampant greed and corruption leading to collapse of the economy and it seems government.
Is Ferguson, a community of 21,000 people at the "Tipping Point" ? Are others at the same point?
Was it O.K. for Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu of Israel to give a campaign speech in the American Senate attacking the President because Republicans had control ?
Are more Republicans supportive of Israel than Democrats?
I doubt that.
Would Republicans have done that to Presidents Bush Kennedy or Clinton?
Is there a touch of systemic racism in the American Senate ?
Is it easier for me as a white person to ask that question than it would be for a black person?
And Is that the essential definition of systemic racism?
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11 comments:
A society is reflected in its literature. I do not see the problems yet in Canadian work but it is certainly showing through current American writing.
"Most of us can't be persuaded we should be taxed to buy culture for others."
Most? If by "us," you mean your handful of blog commenters, sure. If you're referring to the residents of Aurora, you don't know that and can't quantify it, so shouldn't state biased speculation as fact.
13:01- "handful of blog commentators"? How can you quantify "handful"?
There was a survey done resulting in the people of Aurora wanting the Town to cut down spending on "Culture". How's that for "quantifying"!
Well, 15:32, I speak as one of the "handful" of regular commenters on this blog. That number is easy to observe.
That survey had a hundred respondents willing to accept up to a 10% reduction in spending (including Town programming & events). That measly 100 - relative to the town's population - could only aspire to "handful" status.
17:30
But you have nothing with which to counter that number who were willing to go on record. No one asked me but if I were asked the same question, I would know exactly which group was abusing their position.
Nobody asked me. And I would have reduced it to a helluva lot more than 10%!
There is more than a touch of systematic racism and discrimination. Not only in the US senate but all over the world, and not only in government.
19:50, it was a hundred people trying to win an iPad Mini for taking a survey.
The question mentioned nothing of "abuse."
I was against money for culture.
23:30- What did the result of the survey have to do with trying to win the iPad? It makes me sick to think of the kind of money being spent on the Center with all the duplicated services that the Town already provides and the local businesses providing the same services that have to make a living.
"People really need to believe in leaders."
Name me a Canadian leader in whom you believe.
"A civil society needs to respect its institutions"
Did Harper show any respect for the Supreme Court and its Chief Justice? Is this what his leadership is all about?
"When a law is passed government needs to know it is accepted."
Harper's omnibus bills brought to Parliament contain dozens of "laws" that have little, if any discussion, and most people don't even know about them. I think that all laws should be subject to Parliamentary Committee hearings and discussions so that - (a) Parliamentarians know what it is they are legislating, and _ (b) the public at large has an opportunity to consider the proposed laws and comment on them, with a view, sometimes, of bringing pressure on MP's to amend them.
When a law is passed the PEOPLE must have understood and accepted it, otherwise we are governed in ignorance.
A democratic government needs to conduct itself with both trust and responsibility. Neither of these things now exist with our federal government. Canada is being governed by one man's ideology.
Thus we are not a true democracy where the will of the people is embedded in a country's laws. We can say "Thank God" for our Supreme Court, for it is the court that is upholding our constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
We are contributing in peanut fashion to a war in the middle east, not because we were asked, but because one man decided. We are told that we must defend our borders against Islamic terrorism. There is always the risk of a handful of demented individual blowing themselves up in the belief that they will be surrounded by countless virgins, and taking innocent people's lives with them.
We need to get back to the business of being a democracy, with less fear-mongering. But that requires ALL OF US TO PARTICIPATE.
Unless and until that happens we are putty in the hands of a demagogue.
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