I’ve been kind of quiet on the column front, probably because of in terms of having things to express an opinion about lately, we’ve been swamped with material.
It’s like, where do you start?
Let’s review the possibilities: A continually-lying U.S. president; a disgusting backlash against racial minorities demanding equality and freedom from violent oppression by the state; psychotic resistance to science-based strategies for dealing with a global pandemic; the near-collapse of democracy in America and the deliberate effort to undermine it by some of the leadership in that country; the complete and utter failure of our neighbour, biggest ally (supposedly) and economic engine to deal with any of these issues in any effective way; the sad reflection of support for those issues in a segment of our own country; the buffoons in charge of the two Uniteds – States and Kingdom; and sure, I’ll throw in the disturbing inability of our own prime minister to recognize what a conflict of interest is (but given the scale of political scandal, I’d take his issues over Donald Trump’s).
Stop. Take a breath and….go…the horrific behaviour of people on social media; the mystery as to why people feel that wearing a mask on their face to control the spread of a virus is a violation of their freedom (what about my freedom from the pestilence borne by your breath?); the loss of civil discourse; the glee with which people indulge in blamestorming whenever somebody does something wrong (accidentally, of course); the tendency of people to demand something be done about homelessness but whenever somebody does something, it’s lambasted; the complete intolerance for an opinion that doesn’t line up exactly with your own; the expression of opinions that are based on something heard from your uncle’s-boss’-wife’s-sister five years ago when the conditions that made it possible no longer exist but which you’re certain is absolutely the gospel truth and anybody who thinks otherwise is a twit.
Oh, I could go on. But I think I’ll end it there because it’s the end of the day and the Canucks are playing Game 7 tonight (when I wrote this column in time for my print deadline) and I think I’ll get lost in that little bit of glorious distraction.