With all of the disasters happening around the world with fires, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes and mud slides, my heart goes out to all of those affected.
With some of the comments from the media and some from those affected by these happenings, you have to sometimes wonder where people’s minds are or where they were at some time in the past.
First, with the religious guru who was predicting the end of the world. Well, 6 p.m. on May 22 has come and gone and the world is still here.
The ones I question are those who disposed of all their worldly possessions, sold them off, or whatever. The question to them is, what difference would it have made if you or anyone else kept the possessions and you now have the money? Hello, the end of the world was coming and there were only two places you may end up and you can get to neither with money nor any other worldly possession.
Your actions throughout your life determined that.
What are you going to do now? Can you buy them back or get them back since the guru is now apologizing for picking the wrong date?
The second is some of the people who have built their homes and businesses on flood plains. This reminds me of a little song I learned in Sunday school that went something like this: “The wise man built his house upon a rock. The rains came tumbling down and the wise man’s house stood still. The foolish man built his house upon the sand. The rains came tumbling down.”
You can fill in the rest. If you are going to build your house below the water level and put a pile of dirt between you and the water, then eventually you are going to get wet.
There is nothing any government can do to stop that, no matter how we try to pressure them to do so.
To be even more hard-nosed, I am not sure the taxpayer should foot the bill for the fix-up either if it was a predictable happening.
Walt Cobb is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. He is a former Liberal MLA, former Williams Lake mayor, and current president of the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce.
