Yes Virginia, It Is Your Culture Of Violence.

     Like many Canadians I have relatives in the U.S. and have pondered what makes us different in a meaningful way. The events of Friday at the Elementary school in Newtown really put that into perspective once again for most Canadians. When I was a boy in the 1970's we once traveled to Oregon to visit my dad's cousin who lived on a beautiful acreage and had kids my age. It was amazing, and so different than my suburban world in Canada! For one they had a pool, which I thought was the height of luxury, there aren't a lot of private pools in Alberta where we have a 3 month warm period followed by a never ending winter. As I mentioned earlier it was also in the country, which was kind of amazing too, full of trees and critters that we do not have on the high plains, like tree-frogs, that my 2nd cousins liked to blow up with firecrackers. Oh yeah, it was also around the 4th of July so there were a lot of dangerous fireworks for kids to play with, which would be totally illegal back home for anyone to possess. My world was all about putting something like a frog or other curious beastie in a jar or something and studying it, these kids just wanted to blow them up. Ok, so that's a different approach to nature and what I was taught were all God's creatures. The thing I remember most, second to running into a patio door and getting a bleeding nose was a little deer that ran through the back yard, those of us from Canada were all "ohh look how cute" and the Americans were all "get the gun!" Which I never understood, since you live in the country and seeing deer would be one of the benefits? I always thought it illustrated a huge divide in American/Canadian thought process.
     The shooting in Connecticut seems to have a lot of Americans asking what is wrong with our culture? Is it the American culture of violence? And as a Canadian I would say yes it is, obviously we have guns in Canada and a lot less violence, my relatives in Saskatchewan have tons of guns for hunting yet no mass shootings. America was conceived in violence and buoyed by slavery which later became a Civil War which later became a war of Civil Rights which later became a Culture War until you elected Barack Obama which we (around the world) hope is a signal that the war-on-everything culture is ending!?!?!? In contrast, Canada was conceived in compromise, yeah we had some small wars in the 18th Century, but we could never make all the Quebecois speak English and be loyal to the British Monarch so we just said fine, we can handle that we'll just be officially bilingual. We didn't have a War of Independence, we just asked the British if it was OK if we ran everything over here on our own and 120 some years later wrote a Constitution. We didn't ghettoize people or certain groups of people, we had periods of racism but everyone seemed to get over it in a generation or two. We did treat the Chinese pretty bad for which we said sorry 90 years later and we also interned the Japanese in WWII, for which we also said sorry and if memory serves me right from High School History, we got the idea from the U.S. anyway! Our history as Canadians has been mostly peaceful and full of compromise.
     How does one tell a Canadian from an American abroad? Well, the Canadians will be the quiet ones minding our P's and Q's and maybe trying out our P's and Q's in the native language of whatever country we're in and your average American will be talking loudly, drawing attention to themselves and probably not using P's and Q's in any language! Of course there's always exceptions so spare me the hate mail please! So many Americans act like they are here to cure the world of a lack of McDonalds and a lack of American English and oh yes a sense of American Justice. When 9/11 happened it was the time to talk of war, War on Terrorism and war in Afghanistan and Iraq, there was no hesitation, When mass shootings happen a lot of Americans say now is not the time to talk of gun control, because emotion might take over? I guess we should wait until the time we are desensitized to the idea of 6 year olds being shot to death, which might come with 100 hours of news coverage. Or so the pro-gun lobby hopes.
     One hopes that this is "the tipping point" in American culture and it very well may be. The idea of 6 year old children, the most innocent of society, being shot by a lunatic is beyond the pale. I'm sure a lot of us, desensitized to violence in the Middle East, took notice of the Assad regime in Syria when they shot small children execution style in the head. It goes beyond language and culture, it is beyond the pale for all of humanity. In some ways I think we could comprehend the motive of the loner bullied teenager, angry at society character shootings like Columbine. Then the Tuscon shooting of a sitting Congresswoman which got politicized by the right but there was no motive except schizophrenia, and I'm not sure why the Aurora shooting didn't start a gun control debate since they were just watching a movie? It was in the summer during an election year? No one wanted to talk about it? There was also a  shooting at a Sikh Temple that summer that went fairly unnoticed, I'm sure many Americans think Sikh's are Islamic and didn't care? There was the shooting at an Amish School a few years ago but I wonder if many think it's not our culture so we can't comment? But this Newtown shooting  is kind of too much to bear for all of us, I barely like children and am completely upset! As Oprah used to say "This is going to be BIG!!!", on that Friday the Networks suspended regular daytime programs for about 4 hours, Saturday Night Live did not have a comedic opening but rather a children's choir dedicated to Newtown, Football teams held hands on the fields in moments of silence, we haven't seen something like this since 9/11. Also the time of year, a week before Christmas, it's pretty heavy. We can all imagine that the parents have bought gifts already, made Christmas plans, have brothers and sisters and grandparents and everyone else in their entire extended families that will not enjoy the most festive time of year. Given most people's adoration of Christmas, a shooting of children at this time of year almost anywhere in the world is enough to send most people over the edge! So, yes, I totally believe this is the tipping point to some form of gun control in the U.S.
     I am hoping the Americans go through a period of introspection right now, it's the Holidays so maybe they will be doing more visiting with each other and less watching FOX News? Introspection, check it out, it's a non-American idea the rest of us do in the world. With rights come responsibilities, the 2nd amendment does not give the right to bear as many arms as humanly possible. Maybe you should just remove it from your Constitution? Like the Slavery part? and the Prohibition part? The right to life and liberty in our times seems to be trumped by crazy people who have access to military style weapons. You can't have a society where people are afraid to be in a public place so my guess is that life and liberty will win out in the end. Is it time to cling to the 1700's or time for some Hope and Change!?!?!?
     
     

Economics 101

     I have spent my fair share of time with the so-called rich, I live in a wealthy city and my profession brings me up close, live, and in person. I must say they are the most boring people on the planet, self absorbed, and constantly worried about business, I suppose those are the two qualities that make one wealthy? So I don't know why people even aspire to be wealthy? For some the path to wealth was through some kind of work (usually not as hard as they would have us think) for others, the worst kind of wealth, the well connected, born into it kind, the path of entitlement.
     I grew up very middle class, my dad was in the Air Force for several years and later worked in a union job, almost everyone's dad did back then. My mom mostly stayed at home and would work part time so we could have a good Christmas. They paid off their mortgage in what would seem a very short time by today's standards, we went on trips to Disneyland, drove nice cars, went to public school and were encouraged to attend College or University in some far away future. If I had kids I would want them to grow up like that, not rich, I like the idea of a middle class, it's what other countries admire and why people want to live in North America as opposed to say Sierra Leone or Afghanistan. I don't want to single out countries but recall the UN called these places amongst the most corrupt and lowest living standards in the world.
     I have honestly lost some sleep recently over the tax fight in the US, they are our largest trading partner and I want them to do well as their economy has consequences for us in Canada. The fight, extending tax cuts to all, including the top 1%, people like Bill Gates, Paris Hilton and Donald Trump, or only those making less than a quarter million. The rich have had it easy the past few decades and especially under the Bush tax plan. Since 1980, when Ronald Reagan started "trickle down economics" the income of the highest tax bracket has gone up 80% while for those in median brackets income has risen 3%, total stagnation for the middle class. The Bush tax cuts did not create jobs, in the 90's Clinton created 20 million jobs compared to 2 million created during the Bush era. Yet, Republicans are still yelling their heads off about "the rich create jobs". Little thought is given to the fact that if you or I do not have extra income we do not buy things thus less people are hired to make things. Or how about, we don't even make that many things anymore? About 90% of my recent Christmas shopping was made in China, even my Alberta scenes calendar was printed in Korea, what's with that?
     I just don't "buy" this right wing lie that the wealthy create jobs, I don't care how much former reality TV star and co-host of the View, Elizabeth, yells it at me in the mornings! I have always worked for so-called "small business" and I can tell you they are helping no one but themselves. Like the theory of Communism, this theory of small business saving the world does not recognize basic human drive, self interest and greed.In my first real full time job I made $4.25/hr, the lowest legally possible at that time, while the owner drove his collection of foreign sports cars and we constantly had the police showing up at the restaurant looking for him to pay up on unpaid speeding tickets. I remember another "  McLeans Magazine, self-made business woman of the year winner" I worked for, straight-faced telling all of us in the company that we must all work harder, and there is no money for a raise for anyone, as she drove a brand new Lexus to work everyday and took frequent shopping trips to New York. My generation was really on the shitty end of the stick during the 80's and 90's, corporations suddenly discovered that they could lay off half the staff and make the rest work harder to line their pockets, the era of social responsibility was over. The rest of us, the young and not educated enough were left to work at minimum wage jobs, so cry me a river current 20-somethings, we didn't have a hope in hell of an entry level job, let alone a career, ha ha don't make me laugh!
     Sure, there are the odd super-rich people doing great things, maybe a little of what Oprah does is good, a little is about publicity too. This Week with Christiane Amanpour recently interviewed Ted Turner, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who is responsible recently for funding the new AIDS drug breakthrough, hey cool, these guys are giving it all away and trying to do something positive. But they are in the minority I'm afraid. When I think of the super-rich I am reminded of another employment opportunity I had once, recreating a 17th Century gold leafed ceiling for a very bored oil executive wife. The house was nothing special, a large split level in a 1970's suburb, they were going to build a bigger house but thought they would spend without boundaries on this until that time came. Do you know the expression "more money than brains"? Aside from a gold leafed and intricately painted ceiling, there was an imported tile mosaic of a byzantine saint, reinforced floors for the imported marble throughout the entire house- complete with custom monogram, imported stone bathtubs, there was to be a mural of the Three Kings ascending the new staircase probably with an imported railing. And that was just the inside, outside she had torn up the entire yard, which is a travesty in this part of the world where trees take 20 years to grow, the plan was for imported English iron gates and a pink sandstone wall imported from India, really, in Calgary once known as the "Sandstone City" because of all the locally available sandstone!?!? I never stayed long enough to see this projects end, surprise, it kind of made me sick to my stomach to know that someone could blow what I owe on my mortgage on one shopping trip to Italy! Also, this insane Michael Jackson-ish project was taking forever! I remember this lady roaring up in some kind of tiny sports car, changing her mind about some detail or another and then pulling all of us aside to talk about where the new cast iron rabbit should be placed in the bathroom or how paint changes colour in different light and if it should be a shade darker or lighter, every detail had to be gone over and over again! Just let us finish something lady, I have to be able to get something done in a day when I work, I'm just crazy that way! It also put a chill on things when I had to negotiate my wage and she had someone else talk to me about it, and say what I was asking was too much, nice, I guess she was too busy to talk to the riff-raff artists who were trying to bring her personal Disneyland to life? I think about her every time I gas up my car, at least I know this money is going straight to some Italian marble quarry somewhere!
     So, tax cuts for the rich? While the Republicans want to cut off Unemployment Benefits? So people like Paris Hilton can design purses to carry other people's cocaine? Hmmm, did anyone remember that Paris needs to have paying customers to buy those purses? It's economics 101.