Fearless 2002 prediction: We'll fight the same battles

Faith in essential goodness of people and belief in possibilities of democracy keeps old curmudgeon going

The Straight Goods Cyber Forum with Larry Solway

Commentary:

  ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALREADY! So It's going to be (or is - depending on when you read this) 2002. I am long past cheering and kissing the nearest pretty girl. I am long past announcing resolutions which only pump up my ego and deceive me that I am "doing" something. Not at all. I'm the same guy I was in 2001 or 1981 or 1951 for that matter. The same misanthropic, slightly arrogant, certainly loud dissenter.
  People ask my wife: "What's he REALLY like?" Her answer is always: "He is exactly like what you see."
  But I am neither a misanthrope nor a cynic. In spite of my hard-skinned veneer I remain an idealist who believes that people are essentially good and caring and that those who think "human nature" destines us to be greedy, and venal, and duplicitous are simply wrong. I know. I know. There are people like that, but if I cast aside my mask I know that I want to care and I want all of them to care. And many do. Even if they vote like people who should be sent to bed without dessert, they are fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters. They are someone's beloved son or loving daughter.
  All I ever hope for is that some kind of magic light will shine. That the light will be one that illuminates all of us. That it will shine equally on all, and even though some are more skilled or smart or lucky than others, that there will are justice, fairness, and caring. I really believe it can be.

The notion that the government can't run a business is false. If it were true Enron would not be bankrupt costing thousands of people their life savings.

  I look at my own unregenerate, unyielding, stubborn belief that politics belongs truly among the liberal left and that justice can be done by electing good government that will stand up for all its people and stand against forces that would dominate, would destroy, would exploit, or would mistreat us. That we will win the fight against crony-privatization and false doctrine. The other day Reguly in the Globe and Mail, for example, wrote that: "By now most people believe that the government can't run a business." It is a false pronouncement. If it were true Enron would not be bankrupt costing thousands of people their life savings.
  I said last week I was going to be part of a small think tank on strategy for the next Provincial election; strategy aimed at making more people understand what justice and caring government should be all about. In the group was a preponderance of younger people - dedicated, caring, zealous, and sometimes a little funky.
  The best I could do was to harp, as I always do, on making people understand what we really want. I even suggested that the nest campaign focus on what I call Four Hs: Health, Housing. Hydro, and Head-ucation. We have to take ownership of issues and persuade people that the taxes they send us make life better for all of us.
  If you don't understand why - I'll see you sometimes, preferably in a dark alley. Whoops - there I go again.

  Happy New Year.

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