One Discombobulated Senior Citizen!

1930's Bulldozer

Over eighty years ago, Don Hansen and I were playing in the snow that had been recently ploughed off the road in front of our house on Douglas Avenue. A large caterpillar tractor had gone by earlier  and the huge mound of snow was begging for a cave. We carved out a little tunnel and scooped out a larger hideout deep in the snow bank. We took off our mittens and made a little bench around the parameters of our make believe  Eskimo home. Unknown to us the Bulldozer was making a return run to push the snow further off the road. I ended up deeply buried and Don was rolled onto the sidewalk. He quickly ran to our front door. My mother recruited a man walking down the street to shovel the snow away to find me and drag me to safety. I still carry a mental image of my red mittens torn to shreds by the caterpillar's track!

They say self awareness begins somewhere between one and three. If I was not aware of my existence prior to that snow plough event, I sure was after. I knew I had escaped death by the 'skin of my teeth'.

Strange as it may sound it was the T.V. coverage of the Remembrance Day Event that brought back this memory of my 'roll in the snow'. As an example, what surprised me is how my opinion of war has changed since the late thirties. In 1939, when William McKenzie King was Prime Minister and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were in Saint John looking for support for a war about to begin, I got caught up in the hoopla! Like so many young males I was all fired up and ready, to put on a uniform and go and fight the enemy. During most of that war I regretted my age barring me from becoming a soldier. Yet, in spite of the hype, propaganda, music, the signs and above all, the weekly announcement of local soldiers and relatives killed, I was confused. I sat down with my mother, who had lost her younger brother in WW1, and asked her why? I remember saying, 'But don't they have fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters also'?

While it is true our experience in life helps form our opinions, how we see 'our world' differs as we learn more and are exposed to new and dissimilar experiences. In WWII it was clear, or at least we believed it was so - the 'Natzies' and the 'Japs' were the enemy. It was easy to take sides and visualize the outcome. Certainly ISIS, with its ethnic cleansing, mass murders, rape, beheading, execution of homosexuals and adulterers, enslavement of women...is one enemy. But what happens when they are 'defeated'?  There are too many other players involved. Who are the "good" guys" and who are the "bad guys"- Bashar al-Assad, Russia, the Islamic regimes, Shiites or Sunni, Hezbollah, Kurds, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, America, France, Germany, Turkey  etc...........There are just too many teams, wearing different jerseys and seeking their own goals, to see the end results.

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"Can anyone plausibly argue that assisting in the achievement of Saudi, Russian, Iranian, and Syrian government goals will make life better for the people of the region?" (Huffington Post - Politics, Canada)

How does an ordinary citizen like this octogenarian decide what we should do? No longer is it just "good" versus "evil". Some of the "evil" we know, but what are the end goals of some of the others players? Are we taking seriously as to why so many young people are angry and flocking to ISIS? There is no easy "fix" and the Western powers have made some very bad mistakes. ISIS can not exist with the rest of us on this planet.  So what do we do now? I hope the new government has some very enlightened advisers.

One thing is sure, we need more than a snow shovel to dig our way out of this one.

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week

Did you Know?

McDonald's and Subway are about to stop purchasing meat raised on human antibiotics. It contributes to resistant to super bugs.