Question - What's the difference between the American search for Osama Bin Laden and today's Canadian election and its search for a visionary to lead our country?
Answer - The Americans found what they were looking for and it only took 10 years.
The Conservative Party has been in power in Canada for the last five years. They continued and expanded on the policy of their predecessors, the Chretien/Martin Liberals, by sending our troops to Afghanistan to fight the enemy on its home turf. There is now a plan in place to bring most of our troops home in the near future, but that is likely to change should our enemy begin to turn the tide against us. As an election issue, the NDP are adamant that our troops be brought home immediately. It's a difficult call on what the correct approach should be. I do know that whoever wins today, be it Michael, Jack or Stephen, he needs to put political leanings aside and listen to the Canadian people - the silent majority are talking to you.
My kids will be 11 and 9 years old later this summer. They are growing up in a world that is vastly different than what my generation knew. The events of September 11th, 2001 changed the way we have been able to live. Before that day, North Americans always went "over there" to fight our battles. Wars and battles seemed more regional in scope and the enemy was usually easily identifiable. Now, we worry about our safety and the safety of our children as they roam our cities, towns and neighbourhoods.
The word used most often to describe this new warfare is "terror". We have terrorism, terrorists, terrorist cells, political terrorists, and ideological terrorists. Terror is defined as a state of intense fear. Living in a constant state of terror is no way to live.
At this morning's breakfast, I told my children about the finding and killing of Bin Laden. I believe it is better to be proactive on such matters and have my kids hear important and distressing news from their parents. It has to be more comforting to hear it from mom and dad versus the annotated version from the kid in sixth grade or overhearing the bus drivers surmise whether Bin Laden went down fighting or was he cowering in a hole like Saddam Hussein. We encourage them to ask questions and try to make something positive out of the brutality. Kendall and Avery often watch the evening news with Grammie, while waiting for Jeopardy to come on, so I wanted them to have some awareness and perspective on what took place before hearing about it from Fred Hutton of NTV.
I will have more long talks with the kids later today. I can't imagine how confusing it may be to a child to try and understand why so many people are happy when someone has been killed. I think I will also have to speak with them about the federal election. Just as Avery was leaving this morning, she asked inquisitively "So Stephen Harper may not be Prime Minister anymore?" Without much thought and without really considering that my audience was an eight year old, I replied "It's time for him to go. He is much too arrogant." It would have been easier for Avery if I had just used Danny Williams' previous election stance and said "That's right Avery. Stephen Harper may no longer be the Prime Minister. It's as simple as ABC." To an eight year old, and to everyone else, that would make sense. Be sure to get out and vote today.
No comments:
Post a Comment