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Stray Bullets and Collateral Damage.

burnt

Well-known member
A piece I recently wrote to address Municipal Council -

“Lest we forget”, repeated on Remembrance Day 2013, not so far in the past.

Yet it seems that we have already forgotten. Or perhaps, we never really understood what it is that we are to remember on November 11. For it is not just the brave living and dying of the soldier that we should recall, or remember only our freedoms for which they gave their lives. For while we rightly commemorate the first and blithely enjoy the second, it would be a lesson wasted to ignore the kind of wrong-headed government that eventually draws people into the chaos of a war through which they hope to regain their freedoms.

Of what use is it to stand at the Remembrance Day ceremony to pay hollow tribute to the bravery of those who unselfishly spilled their life-blood in defense of our freedoms, and then retreat to the Commons or council chambers to snipe away at those freedoms with pernicious pens, spilling cheap ink in writing more oppressive laws or raising taxes, driven by cowardly self-interest?

The worst of it is - these misdirected, scattershot laws, like bullets gone astray, always cause collateral damage, blindly injuring non-target populations while the intended target frequently marches away unscathed. Or the inflicting of unjustifiable taxes is shrapnel tearing through flesh and bone, bleeding us out while impairing and maiming the ability to function.

For a recent, local example - someone now proposes that we should pay for a permit to strike a match. I propose that we, the people, fire anyone who might attack our freedoms through such trifling means. They obviously do not have enough worthwhile work to do anyway. Nonproductive sappers are what they are.

This is no longer about “protecting the people” as some sanctimonious elected officials like to proclaim as they try to marshal public thought into proper columns. Rather, it is all about protecting a system of governance that has grown so bloated and unwieldy that it is fast losing its functionality. And with its integrity long gone, its real mission forgotten, it has turned into a destructive force like a vacuum bomb. Who is the real threat to freedom today?

Thus, the proud display of respect at the Cenotaph on November 11 has turncoated into a grave disservice. Shame, shame on our local leadership which seems intent on being remembered as the municipal government that has done more than any other in our history to erode the rights and freedoms that soldiers died to protect.

My hat is off to those who paid the price back in wartime, as well as to those who presently stand in resistance against any who, through their officious high-handedness, would capture our rights and freedoms like prisoners of war.

If you want to fittingly remember those who died for freedom, pick up the phone and call your councilor or whoever it need be, and state your disagreement with invasive laws and bylaws. Far better to engage small tyrants before they become big dictators. Take heed and remember, because the enemy can just as easily appear in a suit and tie and carry a pen, as wear a uniform and carry a rifle. “Lest we forget”.
 
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