WCR Letters to the Editor

A pathetic defence of moral betrayal

It becomes painfully true that most if not all politicians of our solid, property-owning majority choose the path of opportunism and expedience.

Gagnon is also right when she says this creates quite a considerable imbalance (or incongruity) between belief and behaviour in politics.

This fact serves to explain the prevailing cynicism and disillusionment with the "democratic" process, party system (with its illusion of differences) on behalf of many, and the continuing lack of radical and fundamental change in our economic system and our institutions.

The adage that the "rich get richer and the poor get poorer" holds undoubtedly true for most societies, and Canada is no exception.

A report from Falling Behind (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) states that "There has been no increase for more than 20 years in the real annual earnings of Canadian men working full time . . . (and) families have had to work longer and longer hours to maintain the same level of earnings from employment."

As regards the much-heralded increase of leisure for working people, "the idea of an affluent leisure society made possible by technological progress has become little more than a bad joke."

It is true that Jean Chretien is representative of our embedded, property-owning majority, who fear to face real issues, who turn their backs on the poor, and who subscribe to forms of "cafeteria" religion, and only select the more comfortable and safer principles of their faith.

This "majority" extends across party lines, and always has, as it has always viewed morality as a form of expediency, to be dispensed with or even misinterpreted as it sees fit.

Yet one must never lose hope or lose sight of the historical fact that there can be a "congruence" between belief and action and between morality and commitment.

"The majority is strong," says Dr. Stockmann in Ibsen's Enemy of the People, "but right it certainly is not. . . . The minority is always right."

Keith Johnson
Edmonton

'Naked I have come into the world . . .'

Nakedness is the very essence of humanity. We all arrive on this earth "clothed" in this manner.

In my estimation, the painting Gethsemane by Edward Knippers is one of the most powerful in the exhibit both in size and meaning. I see Jesus baring his full humanity with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Flash forward to the 20th century. . . . I see a woman, having received the diagnosis of terminal cancer, and both have the same plea. "Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will but what thou wilt."

Art is truly in the eye of the beholder.

Adele Dunnigan
St. Albert

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