To the Editor;
The events of the trucker convoys in Ottawa and elsewhere remind me of lines from the past. In 1921, in the shadow of World War I, W.B. Yeats penned “…. and the worst are full of passionate intensity”, which seemed to anticipate the advent of the brown, black and other shirted who intimidated multitudes in the streets of European cities in the next two decades.
I was also reminded of lines from The Beatles song Revolution, “…when you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell you is brother you have to wait”.
Perhaps The Beatles optimism is outdated.
Yes, everyone is frustrated, fatigued and fed-up with the problems and restrictions associated with this pandemic, but it is still here and people continue dying in significant numbers.
Much of this protest is about vaccine mandates, particularly the requirement that truckers crossing the US border be vaccinated.
One anti-vaxxer at the Ottawa protest complained that the vaccines will not prevent one from getting COVID-19, nor prevent one from transmitting the disease. But the operative word is REDUCE. The vaccine (as well as masking and social distancing) will reduce the possibility of being infected, reduce the transmissibility, reduce the probability of hospitalization, and reduce the chance of death. Plus reduce costs, the period of the severity of the pandemic, and stress on systems.
I am not interested in peoples religious beliefs, their political convictions, nor their pseudo-scientific idiocies, and I entirely dismiss out-of-hand the widely held conspiracy theories that are best left to the pages of dystopian fantasy novels, as well as the outright lies.
These protests ostensibly are about freedom. Yes, there is freedom of expression and the right to protest. However, these protests have come dangerously close to, if not having already crossed the line into harassment and intimidation. When one does that one is transgressing on the political rights and freedoms of others.
In fact, this is part of their agenda - as with the brown shirts of the past - to intimidate potential opponents into silence and acquiescence). Some of that harassing behaviour predates the truckers convoy, such as protesters entering a school in Salmon Arm to press their pandemic views on staff and students. Also the numerous incidents of doctors and nurses being harassed as they arrive for work to heal the sick and comfort the dying (regardless of disease or political views).
Yes, there have been disruptions to our lives and freedoms, but there has been a purpose: Fighting a war against an invisible and constantly changing foe.
How successful have we been so far with our social distancing, masking and vaccinations?
The US, with a population of nearly 340 million (and a substantial resistance to the above public health measures) has logged 900,000 deaths, a death rate of about 2.67 per thousand. This is nearly 150% of all the deaths the US has suffered in all its wars during the twentieth century.
In B.C., with a population of 5 million, there have been around 2700 deaths. B.C.’s death rate is 0.55 per thousand (about one fifth of that in the US) meaning there are about 10,000 people alive in B.C. thanks to the efforts of public health authorities, government, and widespread compliance by employers, businesses, organizations and citizens.
It seems there is indeed money for people with minds that hate - minds contaminated by the hate, ignorance and invective from the mouths of those like Alex Jones, Joe Rogan and the late Rush Limbaugh.
If the source of our values is from the mouths of such, I fear for your future and that of your children. You and they will live in a world more dominated by fear, by hate, by rage and by ignorance than the world in which I grew up.
Learn the lessons of the past - be wary of the passionate intensity of those four most harmful of the human conditions.
Whatever happened to the call to be kind, be calm, be safe?
Glenn Andrews
Barriere, B.C.
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