Some Day Thoughts

FTLComm - Tisdale - Sunday, December 9, 2001

As we hold our perspective of the world and all that we consider it to be, as we hold that up in front of our often confused mind's eye we so often think, and perhaps even say, "Some day, . . . ." I know we all do this kind of pondering in one way or another and we consider that at some point in the future or in the endless time of our imagination, things which are now in turmoil will conclude and life will go on, some of us see someday as a time of tranquility and harmony while others tempered by the rigours of reality see "some day" as an endless bleak continuation of what is and has been. As I took these pictures that are seen on this page today I was aware of the limitations the falling snow was bringing to my perception and how I needed to reach out with my mind to the beyond, to encompass things I have not experienced but just as assuredly affect my life here in this prairie town. The news tells of yet another suicide bomber, the fourth in a week in Haifa Israel, this guy failed, he injured a score of people, was unable even to kill himself with his suicide bomb and was shot dead by Israeli police. The next news story was of the American air force dropping three thousand pound bombs on the mountains and caves around the Afghan location called Tora Bora every thirty minutes, in an effort to nail the infamous Osama Bin Laden whom U.S. officials today claim that a taped comment by this Arab had stated that the success of the September 11, attack exceeded their original plans. Though the falling damp snow and the gloom of the prairie sky I am trying to consider these jumble of far off events that are being used to undermine centuries of human rights traditions. Common Law, the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, The Canadian Charter of Rights, the United States Constitution, all are being ignored because of, or in response to, the horrific attack by nineteen suicidal individuals who rained destruction on America's largest city and the centre of the United States' military operations. A CBC producer was on his way to Ottawa yesterday and his flight was delayed as Air Canada officials checked his identity five times before take off because they had written his name down backwards. His first name is Yassar and his last name Cohen. Now this struck me as a bit funny in an ironic way. Cohen is a Jewish name and Yassar is associated with the leader of the Palestinian government. But Air Canada officials only let the flight continue and take off with Yassar Cohen aboard, Cohen Yassar would not have been allowed to make the flight from Toronto to Ottawa on behalf of the national broadcasting company, an agency of the Canadian government So, what of some day? Will things get better, will things get worse? Obviously things will change but what will it mean to those still living. My sons, their future sons and daughters, what will these days in the end of 2001 have done to alter their reality? Mario deSantis who writes daily in this publication, having studied the writing and thoughts of all kinds of political and economic analysts is convinced that the Republicans and their right wing political agenda is marching into the forefront of the world today using terrorism as an excuse to manage the economy and the life of everyone toward a more totalitarian, authoritarian regime Mario's views are substantiated by a host of other writers and among those we find many of the conservative thinkers saying quite boldly that their purpose to overwhelm totally all other ideologies is their goal. As an Englishman I can look backward in time and note that during the times of Cromwell, a well meaning fellow, the political swing toward oppression was able to crush British life and democratic development for twenty-two years. George Bush and his business cronies could be just as successful. They could easily accomplish what Hitler was unable to do as political authoritarianism is single minded and totally monopolistic toward an ultimate goal of total control for total economic gain and power. But this is where the "some day " factor kicks in. Cromwell after years of austere power peacefully turned over power to the constitutional monarchy and the process toward representational democracy continued. The eighteenth century with its over one hundred capital crimes and the complete destruction of the working classes by capitalism run wild was taken into check by the rise of middle classes who demanded equality, democratic procedures and ultimately the kind of fair society we experienced for almost all of the twentieth century. Bush and his business partners will certainly succeed in their short term goals but like the end of the Cromwell period so will end this foolish convulsion of antidemocratic and violent period of history. Some day we will move on. New enlightened and sensible leaders will emerge and you can go to sleep tonight peacefully knowing that for certain, things could get awfully bad, but in the end, things will get much better. They always have. (Nero in the end was forced to commit suicide, Hitler killed himself, Mussolini was murdered in the street, "the paths of glory lead but to the grave.")