The Olympic Games are in the limelight these days — yay for Canadian women like Williams Lake’s Kayla Moleschi who brought us medals.
There are always controversies with the Olympics, the costs, the drug use, and now the fuss about alleged transgendered women contestants, but the show goes on and it certainly is a show.
I don’t watch many of the events but the gymnasts and synchronized swimmers and divers are awesome.
How do they do it?
Why do they do it?
How many times do they crash while learning?
•The federal government has decreed that people who use marijuana for medical purposes can now grow their own.
That’s one step in the right direction, after all you can grow your own tobacco and that’s hardly for medicinal purposes, but it looks as though the sale of pot for recreational use might be limited to the large pharmacies and liquor stores. Small shops are allowed to sell tobacco, and privately owned beer, wine and liquor stores are all over the place.
What’s the problem with the smaller businesses making a few dollars selling marijuana?
•It isn’t really known who said “democracies eventually get the government they deserve.” Will that be the USA this time around with Donald Trump as president?
•Are whistle blowers heroes or threats to democracy?
While government officials tend to disagree, many citizens see them as heroes.
Last week in Germany, life-sized bronze statues of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning were unveiled in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz in front of politicians and activists.
The statues, the work of Italian sculptor Davide Dormino, honour the three for leaking classified U.S. documents in the fight for freedom of information and speech. The statues are intended as a call to citizens to take a stand for freedom of speech. They are standing on chairs and there is a fourth chair empty, “waiting for anyone to get up and say anything they want,” Dormino explains.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.
