We live in a world where the law of man is warped. It is a system that only the rich can afford. Where the criminal element is coddled. And, where government employees have legal perks coming out the ying-yang. You only have to look at the Basi and Virk fiasco in which the taxpayers paid out six million for their court case. Somehow we need to get back to basics where the law-abiding citizens are protected. Where funding to health care, education, and elders are priorities.
In nature, the weak and the lazy are quickly dispatched, and make no mistake, we are part of nature. Of course, there will be those that use words to defend their position, such as, we will be judged as a society by how we take care of our weak. I whole-heartedly agree, but somehow we’ve butchered the meaning when you hear about elders that are kicked out of senior residences, or children that can’t be operated on, and children who are dropping out of school. All this, because of a lack of funding. Yet, we spend billions in Canada – not millions, but billions – in dealing with repeat offenders, alcoholics, and drug addicts. They made their choice, As long as we contiue underfunding education we will lose children to the streets and keep the vicious cycle going.
There isn’t a magical money tree out there. We need to make a U-turn and put the money that is spent on addicts into the education system to keep the children in school so they can have a bright future. As for the repeat offenders toss them away. It may seem hard, but if we don’t, we as a society are responsible for keeping this vicious wheel greased.
There’s a perfectly reasonable analogy that pertains to gardening and farming. If you allow weeds to grow in your food crops, they will draw valuable nutrients away and the weeds will destroy the crop. Weeds need to be removed from the gardens for the food crop to reach it’s maximum potential. This is the same with society. We need to put our energies towards maximizing the potential of our youth, our health care system, and our elders by removing the weeds.
Lawrence Woodall is a long-time naturalist living in Port Hardy.