Don't be distracted from real concerns
The Editor,
Re: "It's a Gateway to cancer: groups," the Now, March 7.
I almost didn't act. However, I couldn't remain silent any longer. We
all know there are changes in this community and on this planet
occurring because of human beings. The distraction is the discussion
over the degree of impact we're having.
Likely many of you silently feel as I do that, whatever the chatter on
the 6 o'clock news and talk radio, it's obvious we will need to behave
more responsibly as a group or be faced with insurmountable failings
somewhere in the future. The trouble has always been that there are so
many issues and opinions to wade through, all the while just trying to
pay bills and get the kids off to school.
Tomorrow, while staring at the bumper ahead, we might consider the
analogy of comparing a teen smoker to someone in their later years dying
as a result of tobacco induced ill-health. What if that teen knew they
would develop cancer, would they still continue to smoke toward a
certain fatal consequence? Would their daily trials and tribulations
remain so important they would ignore their own mortality?
Any of us who read the Gateway article instinctively know that
distraction is the method employed by the very people who are supposed
to represent us in government. Clearly Kevin Falcon's way of extolling
the virtues of the Gateway project is meant to give us an easy out from
addressing the real issue of how we can start making better decisions as
a community and country. Gateway may be today's logical solution if the
only measure is money, but who owns the future cost of these decisions
being made today?
Fortunately, there are already people leading the effort in bringing
some amount of conscience to a discussion typically reserved for
commerce - that of local and global development. Don Hunt and his
association are working to make it easier for the rest of us to engage
ourselves in a way that may tip the scales toward a better legacy for
future inhabitants of our home. I learned from www.savedelta.ca and
www.sunburyneighbourhood.ca that we can all become someone who almost
didn't act.
Greg Smith
North Delta
published on 03/14/2007
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