Monday, January 16, 2006
Barbarians at the Gates
Barbarians at the Gates
By Ian Lowden, M.Sc., B.A.
I don’t usually write political articles, not because I have no interest in politics, but because I am usually busy with other things. However, some recent events here on Gabriola, involving the abuse of some of our elected representatives in general, and a couple of abusive events in particular, has caused me sufficient anger that I feel that I must address the issue.
We live in a democracy in Canada. We are lucky we do so; much of the world has even less say than we do. Despite it’s obvious faults democracy is worth having and it is worth defending. Thomas Jefferson once said that, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” He was absolutely correct; if we want to keep our democratic rights we must be willing to defend those rights. We must remain vigilant, because there are barbarians at the gates and if we stop defending they will quickly be inside and democracy will cease.
I’m sure lots of you readers are saying, “Yea, I understand, but how does that affect us here on Gabriola?” It affects us, because like anywhere else, we have people here on this island that don’t like democracy. We have people who would like to decide things for us; who think they are smarter than us and therefore believe that they have the right to manipulate, harass and/or bully us into accepting their views of what is right for us. They believe that they have the right to ignore the principles of democracy to get what they want. They think that their views are so much better than ours that they believe they should decide things for us, without going to the bother of being elected. Some of these people seem to feel that it is beneath them and unnecessary for them to stand for election and let the majority decide. Some think that the average Gabriolan is a country hick, barely smart enough to mark a ballot and certainly not smart enough to really understand the issues. Every democracy and every community has these people who like the benefits of living in a “free country” but don’t feel the rules of democracy apply to them. They are wrong! Having freedom means accepting the rules of behaviour that protect our freedom, even when those rules are inconvenient.
There will always be people who feel that they are smarter than us, and therefore we should do, as they want. Likewise, greed is endemic to the human condition and there will always be people willing to profit themselves at the expense of the rest of us. These people, whether they be driven by greed or vanity, tend to find each other and become allies because they share the same goal – they want to be our rulers. They want to be in charge, they want to decide our futures. That does not mean that everyone who doesn’t vote our way is the enemy or even that they are wrong; part of democracy is respecting the rights of those who dissent. We have the right to dissent and even protest, but there are rules governing our dissent and protest. If we disagree, then by all means write or phone or visit our representative. We have the right to object to decisions made by our representatives, but our representatives have rights as well. Our representatives have the right to go shopping, picnicking, visiting friends, etc. In short, they have a right to have a life outside of the office. And, they have the right to go about their business, the same as the rest of us, without being attacked, bullied, intimidated or having to endure someone screaming abuse in their face.
Democracy has many faults, but it is the best system to protect the rights of most of us. We elect representatives in our form of democracy and these representatives are the people we trust to make decisions affecting all of us. We may not always agree with every decision made by our representatives. If we disagree with a sufficient number of decisions we may well choose to vote for new representatives in the next election. We don’t have to agree with every decision to recognize that our representatives deserve some respect. Our representatives are an extension of our will and disrespecting them is disrespecting all of us. We can disagree with our representatives and we can try to influence their decisions, but what we cannot allow is for a group or an individual to attack them unfairly; we cannot allow them to be assaulted and bullied. If we allow people to try and bully, harass or intimidate our representatives then we are allowing the barbarians to enter our gates.
By Ian Lowden, M.Sc., B.A.
I don’t usually write political articles, not because I have no interest in politics, but because I am usually busy with other things. However, some recent events here on Gabriola, involving the abuse of some of our elected representatives in general, and a couple of abusive events in particular, has caused me sufficient anger that I feel that I must address the issue.
We live in a democracy in Canada. We are lucky we do so; much of the world has even less say than we do. Despite it’s obvious faults democracy is worth having and it is worth defending. Thomas Jefferson once said that, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” He was absolutely correct; if we want to keep our democratic rights we must be willing to defend those rights. We must remain vigilant, because there are barbarians at the gates and if we stop defending they will quickly be inside and democracy will cease.
I’m sure lots of you readers are saying, “Yea, I understand, but how does that affect us here on Gabriola?” It affects us, because like anywhere else, we have people here on this island that don’t like democracy. We have people who would like to decide things for us; who think they are smarter than us and therefore believe that they have the right to manipulate, harass and/or bully us into accepting their views of what is right for us. They believe that they have the right to ignore the principles of democracy to get what they want. They think that their views are so much better than ours that they believe they should decide things for us, without going to the bother of being elected. Some of these people seem to feel that it is beneath them and unnecessary for them to stand for election and let the majority decide. Some think that the average Gabriolan is a country hick, barely smart enough to mark a ballot and certainly not smart enough to really understand the issues. Every democracy and every community has these people who like the benefits of living in a “free country” but don’t feel the rules of democracy apply to them. They are wrong! Having freedom means accepting the rules of behaviour that protect our freedom, even when those rules are inconvenient.
There will always be people who feel that they are smarter than us, and therefore we should do, as they want. Likewise, greed is endemic to the human condition and there will always be people willing to profit themselves at the expense of the rest of us. These people, whether they be driven by greed or vanity, tend to find each other and become allies because they share the same goal – they want to be our rulers. They want to be in charge, they want to decide our futures. That does not mean that everyone who doesn’t vote our way is the enemy or even that they are wrong; part of democracy is respecting the rights of those who dissent. We have the right to dissent and even protest, but there are rules governing our dissent and protest. If we disagree, then by all means write or phone or visit our representative. We have the right to object to decisions made by our representatives, but our representatives have rights as well. Our representatives have the right to go shopping, picnicking, visiting friends, etc. In short, they have a right to have a life outside of the office. And, they have the right to go about their business, the same as the rest of us, without being attacked, bullied, intimidated or having to endure someone screaming abuse in their face.
Democracy has many faults, but it is the best system to protect the rights of most of us. We elect representatives in our form of democracy and these representatives are the people we trust to make decisions affecting all of us. We may not always agree with every decision made by our representatives. If we disagree with a sufficient number of decisions we may well choose to vote for new representatives in the next election. We don’t have to agree with every decision to recognize that our representatives deserve some respect. Our representatives are an extension of our will and disrespecting them is disrespecting all of us. We can disagree with our representatives and we can try to influence their decisions, but what we cannot allow is for a group or an individual to attack them unfairly; we cannot allow them to be assaulted and bullied. If we allow people to try and bully, harass or intimidate our representatives then we are allowing the barbarians to enter our gates.
