Various Veins
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The Senior Centre Singers are fine tuning voices for the annual Christmas Concert. There will be songs of all moods and tempos, some old favourites with a new twist. You will be invited to sing along with us for some familiar numbers. Time and place 7:30 p.m. Friday, November 14th at the Lions Auditorium. Tickets available from members, or call the Senior Centre for information.
It is difficult to get into the spirit of joy and excitement that sweeps over us this time of year when we are coming to terms with the events in Quebec and Ottawa last week.
The killing of two soldiers by men responding to the call from Africa is labelled murder and the attacks described as cowardly. This is spin to stiffen Canadian resolve in the face of danger. Canadian snipers and commandos have used the same tactics in war. They were never branded as murderers and cowards by us. The two assailants are lauded by their fellows in Africa as they taunt us.
Prime Minister Harper said we will not be cowed by the crazies. This again is intended to persuade us to go defiantly about our daily affairs. If we are frightened into hiding by the attacks it will encourage foes to step up the pressure and endanger us all the more.
Whenever I walk in my village I watch the traffic. Four people over the years have been killed by cars here. None were deliberate acts like the one in Quebec. Two were killed on the sidewalk by a drunken driver. Two died by walking onto the road in front of cars. We have been cautioned over and over to be aware of danger, traffic, dangerous waters, standing under a tree during a thunderstorm. Many pay no attention to the warnings.
Today we are being asked to watch for danger of a different sort, signs of aggressive intent. Some will heed the cautions, some will not.
People were asking if Canada last Tuesday would be forever changed. Some said yes, some said no. In a way it is like asking if the Otter Creek is the same from day to day. It is the same river from day to day, but it changes as weather adds to the depth and flow, sometimes a raging torrent flooding over the banks, sometimes a sluggish stream that scarcely keeps fish alive. Chemical waste affects the creek. Drugs get flushed into the water. Herbicides and fertilizers and animal waste alter the creek.
Canada is changed from day to day by fads, ideologies, tinkering with legislation. We are constantly having to find our balance as old ways vanish and new inventions, social, commercial and communicative inundate us.
A change that few Canadians are old enough to notice is the protocol for lowering flags to half mast in response to a death. It was reserved for marking the passing of royalty. The flag over the parliament building was at half mast this week. That isn't a bad thing. It's just an example of changing concepts.
There was a change in Windsor this week that may add home-grown warriors to carry out orders from Africa. Ford motor company cancelled the manufacture of engines there and moved the operation to Mexico. That leaves several thousand people without jobs.
Gwynne Dyer discusses possible good news for Ma Earth. The search for a way to generate power by nuclear fusion is having some success. Unlike present nuclear generation there is no atomic waste to poison the planet, and no raising of global temperature. The dark side of the change is the death of the coal industry, and eventually petroleum and natural gas use.
Will political leaders have the vision to create social conditions that avoid the sort of effects we are experiencing today as jobs disappear?
Dyer writes it may be five years before a workable plant is up and running. A lot can happen in five years.