Some issues just don’t seem to go away: racism, unemployment, poor health, abuse of every kind, sorrow and injustice and a general lack of get-up-and-go attitude. Somehow, all these issues have some type of reparative or solution in the form of programs, funding, courts, or incarceration complete with laws that are there to remedy or serve some sort of purpose, with, hopefully, a good result.
Take alcohol abuse. This is a worldwide problem, except in countries that prohibit the consumption of alcohol and strictly enforce their no-nonsense rules with hangings, cutting off of hands and limbs and other crude methods of keeping their social laws in place. In our communities, to many, it is a scourge, and to others, it is a blessing in disguise.
Whichever the case, our laws don’t seem to reflect reality in this department. It seems the more we try to enforce our own by-laws, the more they seem to be unenforceable or unpopular. It would make more sense if the drinking were allowed as with the rest of the province and get those who break the other laws, and this would probably filter out the “good and well-behaved imbibers” from the rest of the riffraff.
Racism seems to be another issue that raises its ugly head with intolerance to others who are not of particular family trees, colour, language, religion, location or age. What’s with all that? Isn’t racism more common than once thought? Haven’t old festering sores been cleansed during the 60s, 70s and up to today?
Not so. It seems that whenever we learn more about the world, themore we realize how well off we are in our own communities as compared to other First Nations and peoples around the world. Heck, most racist feelings towards us come not from pity or just plain hatred, but more of jealousy, the worst kind of racism.
I guess that having decent living quarters for families is a given. But families back in the day used to build their own humble homes and late rent payments were never heard of. What happened to the back yard carpenter? The law which is now enforceable through fines and other sanctions demand and require that homes be built by competent tradespeople, so that they can be built according to housing codes.
The problem, of course, was that back in the old days the laws didn’t take into account asbestos, fiberglass, lead and the sandblasting that are extremely toxic to the average working class Joe-Who-didn’t-know-better. So perhaps housing is better but still lacking in numbers. Care to share a room with everyone else, anymore?
Again, when our own laws are looked at closely, some may be socially archaic, dating back to days when our population was less than 10,000, when drinking always ended up with a spat leading to a fight, when a house had just the family and other families in one room, when racism was limited to just three races, white, Indian and Inuit.
Today, all these issues meld together to an overall blanket of insecurity and misdirected good intentions. I say change some laws to reflect our present needs and outlook of our communities. Change laws, change perspectives.
