Bombed Out

Okay, I admit it.  I’ve been kind of discouraged this week, and it’s been difficult to summon up the urge to write amidst all the hoopla flooding the airwaves and social media venues.  I fervently believe in our collective need for an integral kind of politics and the need to discover and develop workable solutions for some of our greatest challenges as a society.Instead, the word “bombshell” received repeated use in the media in the past couple of days.  It was like a three-ring circus, with centre stage being occupied by a Senate scandal unlike anything else we have seen in Canada in recent memory.  Hearing the words of Mike Duffy stating that the Prime Minister knew all about his difficulties and ordered him to make it “go away” for the sake of the Conservative base was bad enough, but to hear Senator Brazzeau conclude that Stephen Harper had just lost his vote just added to scandal upon scandal.  Pamela Wallin's challenge to the government leaders hasn't been any more consoling.  The opposition parties and the media were prepared for this and played their role with the kind of fervor often reserved for elections.  I realize they are just doing their jobs, but the fact that the focus remains solidly on sordidness means that the things we need to start acting on are once again shuffled off-stage.Then there was the bombshell dropped by some in London, Ontario, calling for our police chief to resign because of some strong-armed police tactics against students.  I disagreed with the police action myself, but the sight of a good and honourable man attempting to deal with a maelstrom of public criticism - the kind that caused a couple of prominent citizens yesterday to tell me they would never desire to enter public life if this is how people are treated - was difficult to endure.The chief is a man who worked tirelessly to assist homeless and at-risk women find security and shelter.  He also has assisted numerous organizations in their mental health efforts.  Testament to his positive influence could be seen when one of the city’s primary homelessness advocates and another key leader in our mental health community rose to his defense.  It remains my hope that he will remain a vital contributor to our ongoing community life.What people seemed to have forgotten was that the police responsibility regarding students was only part of a larger community effort that was supposed to be implemented but one that many of the other partners never followed through on.  It left the police having to carry out more serious policing actions than were initially intended.  While meriting criticism, it was ultimately this larger failure of community response that should have been the focus for anyone looking for solutions.  If people had just taken the time to understand that problem, perhaps the brinksmanship over the entire affair could have been avoided.  One such response, noted here, perhaps better revealed how things should have been handled, as well as providing a model for moving forward.“Bombshell” was a term used again when Ontario ombudsman, Andre Marin, delivered his final verdict on a secret meeting held by some of our city councilors in which public agenda items were discussed.  Marin pulled no punches; the entire affair has left another black eye on a community that is economically struggling to regain its footing.  Seeing politicians behaving in such a fashion and, in turn, their mocking of Morin personally represented another low water mark in our city.So, yes, I was bummed out.  Both politicians and citizens had failed to take those higher roads that lead to better outcomes and community cohesiveness.  We are left with an even lower view of the political class and a decreased desire for good people to enter political life.And while all this was going on, millions of Canadians were looking for work, attempting to find food for their families, and more or less dealing with declining futures.  Veterans were experiencing ongoing difficulties getting their deserved benefits.  Bankruptcies were still occurring at a regular rate.  Students were dropping out of university or college because they could no longer afford tuition.  Our emergency rooms were overcrowded and food bank lines continued to lengthen.  Small businesses were having trouble getting through all the red tape and large corporations were moving ever farther afield, leaving depleted communities in their wake.So, yes, in a world of such pain and dislocation, all the emphasis on the bombshells seemed strangely out-of-place.  It’s a good thing when police actions are adjudicated, or when politicians are exposed for meeting in secret or misusing their Senate expenses.  But the true story of Canada in our current circumstance is found in the collective of all those challenges mentioned above.  It remains a difficult thing to apply ourselves to such solutions when we become preoccupied with present urgencies instead of future collaborations.Vaclav Havel once said that, “democracy requires a degree of trust that we often fail to work on.”  If that’s true, then we’d better get at it because struggling Canadians are waiting for us to weigh ourselves against our most pressing problems.  Community and national trust is hard and deliberative work specifically because it remains so easy to put the emphasis on the salacious or the extreme.  Trust is built through traveling on the collective journey, not merely reacting as individuals in the moment.