Sometimes it takes a while for stuff to sink in. A comment to a letter by David McIntyre in the Voice a week or two ago concerning certain development trends along the eastern slope came burbling back to mind. The anonymous respondent pointed out, pretty much needlessly I thought, that Mr. McIntyre 'did not speak for us'. Fair enough – and big deal. I've never noticed that he pretended to do so. I've run into David from time to time at various civic functions, and have always found him to be thoughtful, sincere and forthright. And while it may gall certain locals that he speaks up, speaking up is what he feels compelled to do owing to his heartfelt beliefs and perceptions. And what are his perceptions? - primarily it would seem, according to his various public pronouncements, that there is a very clear and pressing distinction to be drawn between systematic and considered development in any region, and a rampant industrialization based upon urban imperatives and maximal exploitation of any available land base. Hardly a radical viewpoint – unless by radical is meant measured consideration on behalf of future users of the land in question.
OK – the next bit, and the stupidest. I've been an Albertan for eight years – have built up a farm here, grow food, pay taxes, buy fuel, vote, support my Co-op. The anonymous respondent(s) in question claim a hundred years on the block. Got me there. Our Blackfoot Sisters and Brothers sit on somewhere around seven thousand years – pretty much smokes the century club. So telling Mr. McIntyre to 'go back to where he came from' is not just a cheap shot – it opens up the neighbour who tosses that out there to the obvious rejoinder which I'm sure was spoken many, many, many times by our Aboriginal neighbours - “Boy, look at all these dead buffalo and barb-wire fences – sure wish those white people would go back to where they came from – all that fancy talk they talk – sure don't speak for us.”
I've got opinions too, and I'm not going anywhere. And I think McIntyre pretty much hits it on the head about Calgary (Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg) spewing out onto the land with scant regard for either good neighbourliness or good ecology, or good economics come to that. You just have to knock back your hat and give your head a damn good scratch to figure out exactly how long it's gonna take for the movers and shakers in this province to figure out that the economy derives directly and entirely from the living, physical environment – it's that simple – the planet is a closed system. Ipso fatso.
Honestly, it's like saying - “It's my God-given, legal, historical, goldarn birthright to get runned over by any corporate juggernaut, bulldozer monstrosity that happens my way – and I won't take no upstart outsider tellin' me no differnt – period!” No wonder there's rat droppings in the provincial larder.
Phil Burpee
Pincher Creek
Looking out at the projected picture following today's film studio announcement
Bravo! As another one of those "outsiders," I couldn't have said it better myself.
ReplyDeleteIn a democracy every person has a right, and indeed responsibility, to speak. When this stops, so does the dream.
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