Musing

re: on a hillside somewhere - I have been on your mailing list for about a year. I have reminisced over many of your writings because I spent my honeymoon in Alberta thirty one years ago. Living in South Florida, Alberta was an unusual place to choosefor a honeymoon but it could not have worked out better for my wife and for me. Sometimes your writings are inspiring, sometimes they are thought-provokingand sometimes they are a bit boring. Today's writing was exceptional. Anyone who reads your article with an open mind will inevitably have to give some thought to what you have written. If that is not what every writer strives to do, then I do not know what it is that they are attempting to accomplish. Unfortunately, like you, I don't have an answer but like you, I am also aware that nothing that exists today is working. Something else needs to come along to change these erroneous mindframes that have been created over the years. As you said, in the United States only Barack Obama offers the hope of something different. We can only hope and pray that he will get elected and that he will be able to make changes that will bebeneficial for the greater good. Thank you for sharing your mind with us. Like many others I look forward to hearing from you every day. Best regards, AS, Miami, FL

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re: on a hillside somewhere - Where I share your pessimism is that so few people today care to even try. Some people were also greedy when the heroes did their work. In past times Ghandi was supported by a political movement, Martin Luther King by churches and the civil right movement, and Mother Teresa by the Catholic church. I'm sure that today potential heroes exist. From your comments I see that today there are forward thinking people, the present day version of the past US civil rights workers and the Baptists who hired Tommy Douglas' while he was developing political support. The question is where today is the groundswell of public support for changes? Where is the public that is prepared to tell the environmental lobby that food comes before biofuel from corn (note that other biofuels don't threaten food supply). Where is the public that is prepared to tell the civil service that the services the public wants are important and to transfer nurses into the hospitals and out of hand holding programs in doctors offices? In the past days of the heroes you mention, people felt enough freedom of speech and thought to allow them to protest and to campaign for change. Today there seems to be a pervasive fear of thinking and/or saying that seems to paralyze most people. Possibly the best that we can do now is to protect freedom of speech and thought. Then maybe people will feel free to be the groundswell of public support that provided a deciding factor in the past. Until then, any protest may be too much to ask, LHE, Calgary
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