Editor:
I would like to say how much I appreciated Bert de Vinks story from June 22 issue.
We truly are all products of our genetics, our environment and what we experience as we go through life.
Being the age I am I personally missed the chaos and horrors of WW2 but have studied the history over the years and it was a sickening and so completely avoidable event that it defies description.
Let alone explanation.
I offer my respects to any and all who were there and had to live through it.
But we are who we are, because of genetics, life experience, personal choices etc, to be different by design, I believe.
To have everyone think and be the same way would be boring and there would be nothing to learn because we need to learn from each other.
Well, it seems that our politics either draw us together or push us apart so how can those of us who differ in our views come together in agreement?
While I have come to the conclusion that I am conservative in my beliefs I know that I can learn from someone with a different view of things and them from me, as long as we be honest.
If we cannot agree on any specific issue we shouldn’t resort to violence, but with human nature being what it is, that seems to be the “Murphy factor” that messes things up. (Sorry Murphy family!)
And like Bert, I too want a world where we won’t be living under a dictatorship, not now, not ever.
So we must use the political system we have right now to the best of our ability.
Sure, democracy is at times difficult, always messy, frustrating and confusing to most of us and so often ends with the opposite of what we had hoped for. But we cannot give up.
What I think would be a start would be raising public awareness of how government works and most vitally, the need of people to be involved, the importance of an informed electorate.
And in no way should the voting age be lowered, that is just blatant pandering by opportunists and the desperate.
I’ve heard it said many times that voting is pointless and I disagree every time I hear that.
Perhaps the quality of character of the elected is more suspect?
And for sure the party system could use an overhaul, but only if it truly brings the actual control back closer to the electorate.
Governance is best administered on a municipal level, that’s where people can meet the most often, is most cost effective and best of all, most
visible.
Not so much at the provincial level but at the federal level our representatives seen just too far removed from the day to day lives of the average Canadian so I suggest perhaps responsibility and control should start being put into the hands of our local representatives.
If too much power and control is concentrated in the hands of too few individuals you end up with a dictatorship, exactly what we, and the rest of the world do not need.
Especially right now. But enough said.
Left or right, black or white and everything in between, lets keep at it, no matter what our political views.
No violence. And it’s Canada Day soon too, so what better country is there to be living in right now? Yep, we got it all right here!
R. Cave
Quesnel
