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Ask an Expert (01.11.02)
The general public is comprised of 100% complete idiots. I should know, I'm one of them.
As a member of the general public I've had many an opportunity to view our unadulterated stupidity first hand. Or I should say, working in the service industry you quickly realize the uncharted depths of ignorance that permeate the world. I couldn't begin to tell you the number of Americans who think Neil Young Day is a national holiday.
Granted, in many cases this isn't the fault of anyone in particular. If anything it's just a byproduct of living so few years in a world with so much information (there are over 200 web sites on tea cozy's alone). Let's face it, life is too short to know all the ins and outs of underwater welding if you're a line cook. Similarly a peanuckle champion in Kamchatka will most likely find it difficult to tell you how to organize Squamish days logger sports. There is simply too much information out there to master it all. So to get through life, most have settled with knowing enough to get by. The only way we, as humans, even got this far is by finding an area of expertise and stick with it.
This fundamental truth is why people, who say referendums work, are lying to your face.
I'm sorry, but of the people who voted in our most recent referendum question, how many of us are city planners? I'm not an Economic Development officer, I'm not a Mayor, and I'm not even a Town Councilor. So why the heck are you asking me if I want to drastically change the face of downtown? If I'm not mistaken, isn't that why we have an economic development officer? Oh yeah, how soon we forget. Do I ask you if I should remodel my house? No, because that is my area of expertise. Even if I do ask, I know enough about the topic to ask the question in such a way that would guarantee the response I want.
But the "do you hate downtown" vote is over
and done with. Now, lurking on the horizon is Gordon Campbell's 9 million
dollar "do you hate Injuns" referendum.
Putting in a Wall-Mart is one thing. However, Native treaty negotiations?
Are you kidding me?
First he fires more than half the province pushing EI to its limit. Now he expects these people, fighting to live on six dollars an hour, to research and vote on native issues. Since being elected, Gordon Campbell has acted in ways solidifying my feeling that he bases human potential on dollar figures alone. His reckless cuts have personally affected me both financially and physically, but now that he's asking the entire province to hate Native people, he is simply pushing humanity too far.
On the other hand, maybe he has a point. Maybe
that 9 million should be taken from our lucrative health care and put
into a needlessly divisive, potentially inflammatory exercise in cotton-mouthed
bullying.
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