Dear Editor:
With an election approaching on April 28 and April 22 being Earth Day, this month is a time of rebirth, renewal and relinquishment. Taking the symbol of the Easter cross, as possibly emblematic to humanity, one arm pinned (to the cross) in suffering, the other an open embrace of comfort and welcome. We are not America. We are not “formed” on the bones of a civil war whose wounds are still remembered.
Our prosperity was not based in large portions on the forced servitude of others, though we share embarrassment for the bigotries and cruelty of another era, enacted upon Indigenous peoples.
However, we do our best to be “inclusive” rather than subjugative, despite the fact that there is no Statue of Liberty on our eastern shore – only Newfoundland, which generously lived up to its human responsibilities when called upon, in empathy.
In the midst of wars, famines, political shifts and ostracizing tariffs, an awareness is growing. Spring is a time of “pledged” responsibility for our precious world. Our hands joined in care.
There are some who see the world as a neutral place, “there for the taking.” That it’s therefore acceptable to “drill baby, drill,” to frack, to pave, to uproot and rip the natural environment.
However it is perceived, we are in it together. Interconnected. A family of humankind that must care. The same air, the same waters, the same jet streams. We pour toxic industrial fumes on top of all the natural ones, often without picking up behind, without a sense of balance.
What hope is there for the environment if we don’t work with it in reverence and respect?
Clever, insightful commentaries have been written about U.S. President Donald Trump. It is an insecure person, male or female, that needs to exercise fierce control, needs constantly the public attention and admiration. Trump, as American president, has yanked the “hand-brake” on international collaboration, on human co-operation.
Elon Musk has marketed “sustainable” transportation with Tesla, yet he is against green environmental progress.
The prime value of life is not financial efficiency. Monopoly is a board game that can become hugely distorted if it becomes the main focus of a living world. Cash flow as a tool, not a virtue or a value.
We have to believe in our place in the rhythms of nature (God’s light if you wish) – fragments of a “wholeness,” capable of tending a garden.
Bronwen Stanley-Jones,
Mount Forest