Zombie Post

Caveat: Risen from the grave, the following is a rant. Maybe a few rants run together. I don’t make any claims for the logic or readability. I apologise for the overuse of parentheses. The only reason I’m posting it is because I was so flattered that someone actually made a request I couldn’t resist. But if you’re not careful it will eat your brain. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

• gun violence is a human problem, not a ‘black’ problem (or a white problem or an asian problem or a latino problem….). Increasing penalties for those convicted of gun related crimes will probably not solve any problems. It doesn’t work in the US, it won’t work here. Solutions may include but not be limited to; greater penalties for those who procure and distribute illegal weapons, education and community outreach programmes, and, perhaps most importantly, providing positive, enjoyable activities for people at risk of falling into violent gang culture.
• Canada treats our aboriginal people like shit. Where is the native representation in federal government? What about the territories? (areas with a high proportion of native population that are treated as ’second-class provinces’. Yes, they get to send a representative each. One. Sure the population is small, but significant, and the geography is immense). I know that there is some native representation in government, my point is that it’s laughably little. I mean, Elijah Harper was the first one. That was less than 10 years ago. I think there’re still only two, one being the sole member from Nunavut.
• why is it that major environmental concerns that we’ve been talking about for over 10 years are only just beginning to appear on the government radar? Heavy metals in fish & seafood, pressure treated lumber, hormones/antibiotics/other creepy things in food production, pharmaceutical contaminants in drinking water, pesticides being inimical to all life, bioaccumulation in our bodies etc etc…none of this is news. We’ve all known about this stuff forever. Even government bodies have. I mean, I remember seeing a MAD fold-in about BGH in like, ‘86. How is it that we’re only just figuring this shit out?