"We Need Justice"

So says a young Hispanic boy in the following video, a followup of the police brutality in Anaheim I posted about yesterday:

A Success Story Rob Ford and Other Reactionaries Won't Like

Those who see issues in simplistic and absolutist terms will not care to even acknowledge the existence of this letter from a Star reader. It speaks to something that neo-conservatives are loathe to acknowledge, the fact that we live in a society where interdependence and co-operation rather than selfish and exclusionary individualism are key factors in success on many levels:

I grew up at Black Creek and Trethewey. I ran with a tough crowd. I have been in more stolen vehicles than I can count. I hid a gun in my locker in high school for a friend. I was popular — everyone knew who I was. I had parents who seemed to not care what I was doing or where I was. I was playing basketball outside three blocks away on the night police officer Todd Bayliss was shot.

So how did I get out? How am I not in jail? How did I go to university, graduate, get a job, get married, move to Milton and have two kids? Why didn't I get pregnant in junior high like three of my classmates?

I'm not sure I have the definitive answers. I got involved in sports teams and music. I had teachers who cared if I showed up. One teacher asked me what I was going to do with my life. I didn't have an answer. When he asked me about my university applications, I laughed. We didn't have any money, my parents were uneducated and not concerned with school. My situation was not uncommon. After that conversation I was approached by many of my teachers with offers to help with applications, loans and scholarships and a higher paying summer job. Something clicked from there. I was important to people, they didn't want me to fail.

Community and school programs work — maybe not for everyone but they work. We need to show kids that there is hope, that people care what we become, that we can have pride in ourselves and our achievements. Pointing out “immigrants” and trying to deport gang members doesn't work. They come back.

What is the solution? Start young, give kids options, and put money into keeping them off the streets and out of gangs.

It's not a short-term solution, it's a long-term one. There is no quick fix, this takes time and investment. Aren't the kids worth it?

Deanna Churcher, Milton

Another Home Run for Ibbitson

In his quest to become the top scorer in the Harper admiration society and ensure a much-coveted seat in the Red Chamber, John Ibbiston hits another home run in yet one more of his sycophantic endorsements of dear leader in today's Globe.

Police Brutality In Anaheim

Can there be any justification for firing non-lethal weapons on unarmed people, including women and children?

H/t Sandra Harris

Concern For The Collective

For whatever reason, I am one of those people with a deeply ingrained sense of fair play that recognizes we are more than simply individuals 'doing our own thing' in isolation and with no regard to others; I happily acknowledge that we are part of a larger agglomeration that we name 'society.'

So yes, I readily admit to being one of those who counts the number of groceries in the basket of the person ahead of me in the express checkout at the grocery store; I am also someone who uses highway passing lanes for their intended purpose and not as my personal conduit or as a semi-permanent solution to avoiding merging traffic while driving at a speed that shows no regard for cars behind me. I also get outraged if a page is defaced or torn out of a library book.

In my mind, all of the above are serious crimes against the collective, selfish refusals to consider others as worthy of our respect and co-operation as we live out our lives.

And yet it is an attitude that seems all too common today, as governments and cultural imperatives urge us to be self-absorbed consumers whose highest values spring from the dictates of the marketplace, not our consciences, values, spiritual beliefs or regard for the common good.

It was therefore refreshing to read in today's Star an article entitled Harvard professor Michael Sandel examines ‘moral limits of markets’ in new book. In it, Sandel, a highly regarded Harvard professor of political philosophy, asks questions that we seem to have become reluctant to ask today:

Sandel says that we are increasingly reluctant to talk about what kind of society we want. We are reluctant to allow moral and spiritual concerns into public debate. Instead, we’ve come to rely on the market to assign value.

“Part of the appeal of markets,” he writes in the book, “is that they don’t pass judgment on the preferences they satisfy. They don’t ask whether some ways of valuing goods are higher or worthier than others.”

The market is only interested in efficiently matching buyers and sellers. It is not interested in what is being distributed, or whether it is fair — let alone whether some things should be distributed at all.

Sandel talks as well about the growing inequality gap that essentially has us living on different worlds, something that seems so very evident when we look at the direction the Harper regime is taking us in Canada:

By putting a price on just about everything, by having things of great value up for sale, we end up widening the gap between those with money and those without. “At a time of rising inequality, the marketization of everything means that people of affluence and people of modest means lead increasingly separate lives,” Sandel writes. “We live and work and shop and play in different places. Our children go to different schools. . . It’s not good for democracy, nor is it a satisfying way to live.”

He does not oppose inequality everywhere, but believes that too much of it is dangerous. “Democracy does not require perfect equality,” he writes, “but it does require that citizens share in a common life. What matters is that people of different backgrounds and social positions encounter one another, and bump up against one another, in the course of everyday life. For this is how we learn to negotiate and abide our differences, and how we come to care for the common good.”

In a world that encourages lazy thinking, reactionary rather than thoughtful responses, and the embrace of absolutisms, Sandel is a refreshing and much-needed voice of reason and reflection. For those who are especially interested, he also has a 12-part television series available on the Internet that explores many of these questions.

Another Reason To Be Cynical About The MSM

The implications of this are truly and deeply frightening.

A Victory To Celebrate

I have expressed more than once in this blog my opinion that the Harper regime aims to make Canadians feel powerless and disenfranchised, thereby facilitating the government's efforts to remake Canada in its own calloused corporatist image. Once in a while, however, a victory comes along to remind us that we still have power and need to continue the fight against that agenda.

Thanks in large measure to The Toronto Star and reporter Paul Watson, Afghan interpreter Sayed Shah Sharifi is soon to come to Canada, after having been initially rejected under an Immigration program designed to rescue those Afghanis who had put their lives at risk helping Canadian soldiers.

Initially adamant in his rejection of Sharifi's application, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was forced to reverse his department's decision after a groundswell of public indignation arose following Watson's stories.

The latest developments can be read in today's Star, and the entire episode serves as an important reminder that no matter how dispirited and disheartened we may become, none of us must ever stop fighting the intransigence and ideological madness of the Harper government.