DANGEROUS TIMES NEED US ALL TO WORK TOGETHER--LIKE A WAR CABINET

Abraham Lincoln has been alleged to have said: "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves…This is truer today than ever and it applies to Canada.??Trump along with Covid has infected too many of us.??Ideas of conspiracies, overthrowing duly elected governments, assertion of false powers assigned to The VP and here the Governor General, disregard for the authority of an elected government, undermining confidence in democratic institutions such as the Courts and the journalistic media (demonstrators??in Vancouver threatening the media,) supporting the propaganda machines over critical analysis (Goebel’s repetition of lies, 'alternative truths' as described by Trumps team, Russian false stories about the Ukraine),?chopping down the trees of peace and order that protects us from the winds of evil?(Bolt), ignoring the rule of law like the Charter’s Section 1,??agitating the population, displaced protests and disproportionate national economic damage, such as The Boarders versus the political centres in Ottawa, ignoring responsible leaders in the medical profession and their efforts to save lives, ??undermining our spirit of communal interests/compromise and Trump like efforts to create chaos generating a demand for an authoritarian leader who can enforce a one sided view of the world in the belief they will provide peace. All this at a time requiring sober??reflection with a world at the brink of War and Biden promoting "Buy American". The protester make a demand for themselves without reading Section 1 of the Charter and offering a solution.

Democracy is messy. It requires patience, care, empathy, treating everyone with dignity, understanding, compromise, togetherness and balancing all our interests.??That is our foundation of Confederation --??a blending of French, English, Maritimers and later many others – a compromise. A Union designed, at the time, to fend off the Americans and encourage trade.??It wasn’t perfect. We left out the Indigenous, denied them Rights and even cheated them.??Hopefully, we are learning. We certainly owe them more than anyone. No Right is absolute except the right to elect our leaders.??The Right of Free speech does not include: yelling fire in a movie theatre nor does include a Right to physically trample on the Freedom of others such as: to move freely (Ottawa, the Border); a sick person’s need to access??hospitals; relief for Doctors/Nurse; the Right of a parent to endanger children by exposing them to a hostile environment and lastly, a unilateral right to overthrow a lawful government.?

I am not challenging the different points of view here.??I am not determining whose rights are paramount nor suggesting an answer to the conflict.??I simply question the process used by some people.??They may not know what they do but from my perspective they are destroying our foundations and the rule of law and leading us into anarchy. Like the song McArthur Park;

“MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark

All the sweet, green icing flowing down

Someone left the cake out in the rain

I don't think that I can fake it

'Cause it took so long to bake it

And I'll never have that recipe again, oh noooooo”

?Or, William Golding’s,??Lord of the Flies??

?????????“The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away….”?

????????????“We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages”. --???????

We need meaningful debate, not name calling.??we need people interested in building unity, not destroying it, we need selfless people with empathy not anger, we need honest journalists to provide transparency not gossip mongers We need people who accept our Courts as objective independent conflict managers. We need to replace passions with sober thought.??We require people who confirm our similarities before shouting at our differences.??We need people to treat the other with dignity, not labels.??We don’t need some autocratic leader to save us, if anyone will maintain our democracy its each of us working together, recognizing the others interests and proposing compromise.??We cannot set out to destroy our opponent rather we need to help them. We must learn from our history, the residential school system, internment. racism and such.??We must learn from our victims the original occupiers of Canada, that there is this only one piece of Land the indigenous people call Turtle Island that we all are dwell on. They shared their riches with us immigrants.??We should see them as role models.??We must learn from our mistakes how a one-sided vision stole their freedom. Whether we share it together in peace or destroy each other is our choice.??Each of us either make it work or lose it.

Fear wins votes.??Bad news gets more attention than good. I am not taking sides on the mandate debate but let’s keep it proportional to all the other Rights we hold.??We are slowly slipping into a "us and them" based on false facts and conspiracy theories.???Canadians have always balanced individual and communal rights– see the Health Care act, seat belts and spot checks. Yes, the drivers may have had some mobility and choice limited to a degree by the mandate.??The Science clearly shows a reduction in hospitalization with increasing vaccine use.??It establishes a communal benefit of the vaccine while anti-vaxers have limited the access to medical care for the sick, and have made a significant attack on the national economy.??Where is their social contribution. We need to emphasize our communal interests.??Together we live, separate we have anarchy.

Not one in my writings here, has offered a solution.--just demands. It's not that impossible. I offer one as a sample (not necessarily my idea) that a conservative free market person could offer. Both counsel for the opposite sides tell the Court that they agree that the 'market place' can settle the dispute as a matter of every ones having choices.??The joint deal could suggest that currently there are sufficient rules to maintain public safety.??The employer must maintain a safe work place for his employees and if not the employer may be liable for damages.??The merchant must maintain a safe and heathy environment for their customers, if not they are liable. In both cases knowing the infectious nature of the disease, both the employer and merchant can be held responsible for passing infections if they fail to take necessary precautions.??The new law would allow the merchant or employer determine the degree of safety measures they would apply, knowing their liability if negligent.

The 'free market' would determine what the employer or merchant would have the Right to choose what they thought was sufficient protection. .??If a customer didn’t care if the restaurant had a vaccine policy, he would eat at places with no policy.??If the customer cared about vaccines, they would only eat at restaurants that had a mandate.??The law would allow the facilities to determine the policy and the customer choose where they worked or ate.??The market place would determine the type of mandate or precaution giving the choice to the employee (where to work), to the employer (who he wants to attract for business} and the customer (where wants to spend her money) The one proviso is that this free choice lasts only as long a the hospitalization rate remains stable or is going down. But remember the responsibility lies on the individual but if any party is negligent regarding the spread of Covid, much like food poisoning or an unsafe work place the merchant or employer can be liable. That is the way our safety laws work today. Any issues, write me.

The necessities for an operating democracy are (1) mutual respect for diversity and dignity– compromise and balancing interests – section 1 Charter, It includes that communal rights may out rank indidual rights(2) The ruleof law and a peaceful way to settle disputes – independent, open and objective fact based Court system (3) a responsible fact based media – journalistic standards meet this te(4) trusted elections we leave all of us open to authoritarism or anarchyst.??To quote Golding’s Lord of the Flies ( a great read considering these times).??xxxxxxx The abysss we are pulling each other into is a disrespect for our diversity, adenial of our communal rights and demand for personal rights regardless of social effect,we fear the unknown, we are letting our l values explode without a real alternative we seek this godlike saviour as our world crumbes.here is a eality ther is no one coming, we have to dothis ourselves, togther.??If we lose faith in any one of these institutions?