The first thing budding writers learn is to “avoid clichés like the plague.” Unfortunately clichés sometimes describe the current political situation better than a host of well honed words.
Take Brexit, for example. Prime Minister Theresa May opposed it. But when the referendum passed, she found herself between a rock and a hard place, responsible for negotiating a deal she didn’t want to make. Since then, she’s lost a series of votes -- including four in a single day! -- thus proving herself right and wrong at the same time.
Venezuela is, in biblical terms, a house divided against itself -- with one president sort of elected, a second not elected at all, forcing other countries to choose between the lesser of two evils.
In America-the-Great, President Trump keeps beating his head against a brick wall. Or maybe a steel wall. Eating his own words without a hiccup, Trump brags that the wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for will cost Americans only $15 billion.
Multiple choices
And in Ottawa, Justin Trudeau has spent weeks stuck on the horns of dilemma.
On the one horn, he represents a Montreal riding. He has a right -- even a duty -- to lobby for his constituents, many of whom work for SNC-Lavalin. He also needs SNC-Lavalin’s services for his $187 billion infrastructure renewal program.
On the other horn, he should not pressure Justice Minister and Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to interfere in a criminal case.
Events since then put him somewhere between the devil and the deep blue sea. If he truly didn’t know of efforts made by senior staff to influence Wilson-Raybould, he should have. And if he did know, he should have pulled their plug.
As Minister of Justice, Wilson-Raybould had a right to get involved in a case accusing SNC-Lavalin with bribery in Libya. But as Attorney General, she’s responsible for keeping Canadian courts free of political interference.
Which puts her between Scylla and Charybdis. (A less familiar cliché, now that schools ignore Greek mythology.)
No second chance
SNC has a long history of alleged corruption. Wikipedia lists a hydro dam in India, a bridge in Montreal, kick-backs at McGill University, a road and bridge in Bangladesh, and a power dam in Saskatchewan.
A recent CBC investigation further suggests that SNC-Lavalin paid some of its bribes with funding from a crown agency, Export Development Canada, disguised as “project consultancy costs” in Angola, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. SNC-Lavalin admitted to CBC that those payments were “improper.” It has already paid $1.5 million for bribing officials in Uganda and Mozambique.
The old adage -- where there’s smoke, there’s fire -- suggests that Wilson-Raybould was right not to let SNC-Lavalin off the hook.
The jury remains out on Wilson-Raybould’s tenure as cabinet minister. She brought in important legislation on death and dying, recreational cannabis, racial and religious discrimination, impaired driving, sexual assault, and revising the justice system itself. She chaired a parliamentary committee reviewing federal laws and policies affecting Indigenous peoples.
She may also have been stubborn, difficult to work with, and possibly negligent in ordering retrials for persons convicted by flawed evidence.
Integrity vs efficacy
A friend, who describes himself as “a recovering politician” after decades in a provincial legislature, summed up the current contretemps in Ottawa as “a choice between integrity and efficacy.”
Trudeau seems to have opted for efficacy; his plans for the future trump a present spat. Wilson-Raybould appears to have opted for integrity, sacrificing future possibilities for doing the right thing right now.
“Who knows how much more she might have accomplished, if she had stayed in cabinet for another term or two,” my friend mused.
But then Wilson-Raybould cooked her own goose by recording a telephone conversation with Michael Wernick, Clerk of the Privy Council, the prime minister’s top civil servant. Please note -- despite some media comments, there was nothing illegal about that recording. Canadian law requires only that one of the talkers must know the call is being recorded. Not both.
But the legal profession considers it unethical. Prime Minister Trudeau called it “unconscionable.” For the Liberal caucus, it was the last straw. In defending her own integrity, Wilson-Raybould crossed a line in the sand.
Ironically, in Florida, she could legally have shot someone in self-defence. In Canada, defending herself by recording a telephone call results in being hoist by her own petard.
Damned if she does, and damned if she doesn’t.
But that’s politics today.
P.S. Here’s a challenge for you readers: who can identify the most clichés in this column?
*******************************************************
Copyright © 2019 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca
********************************************************
YOUR TURN
Last week I didn’t write a column, because I couldn’t do better than Mary Peterson, the minister of Gisborne Presbyterian Parish in New Zealand Aotearoa. Most of you, apparently, approved of that decision.
Dawne Taylor wrote, “Thank you so much for sharing the letter from the New Zealand minister. She speaks eloquently and with passion and commitment. And thank you for your thoughts on “oneness” -- hopefully someone will put your words to music.”
Helen Reid also like Mary Peterson’s letter, and the brief “anthem” I composed to go with it: “Thank you for sharing the letter from NZ -- a ray of hope in a very dark situation. And your song was excellent. I look forward to someone putting it to music.”
Sandy Warren had similar thoughts: “Thank you to Mary Peterson for her inspiring letter and to you for highlighting it. We loved New Zealand when we visited several years ago and this gives a deeper appreciation of why. It is more heartening than I can express to hear about this widespread spirit of unity and respect in a world desperately needing their example.”
Ruth Buzzard, though, had some questions. “I am inspired by your ‘We are one. They are us’ column,” Ruth wrote. But “I have a dear friend of over 60 years who would exclude all people who do not believe in her liberal ideas, all Republicans, all climate change deniers, and all Trump supporters. She works for many green causes and international charities. I also have friends in California who are fully armed Trump supporters, but are the kindest, most generous people I know. I have another American friend, a PhD in economics and retired professor at UCLA, who is an immigrant from Sri Lanka and has very dark skin. She regularly sends me the most horrible anti-Muslim e-mails, stories about sharia law taking over in Canada because of our liberal immigration laws. She is proud of having worked for Trump during the last American election.
“Am I wrong to have such diverse friends? Should I limit friendship to people who believe what I believe? Should I try to convert them to my way of thinking, the Right Way? Or try to persuade them that they are wrong to believe what they believe?
“Or should I accept their friendship and their right to believe things I feel are wrong? Does ‘We are one. They are us’ include everyone, or just the people who think the way we do?”
Laurna Tallman applauded the idea of setting “We are one. They are us” to music: “A political solution built primarily on emotion is not a solution. However, setting it to musicworks magic for those who sing and who hear it because the music,not necessarily an understanding of the words, makes people more rational. The same may be said of church hymnody.”
Laurna has spent years using music -- particularly high frequency music -- to stimulate the left brain, through the right ear. She writes, “I have seen racial confusion in people with low left-brain dominance and a tendency towards homicide more generally (a violation of the I-Thou conceptualization) in people who have or who acquire low left-brain dominance. Those mental constructs alter when the individual is treated with Focused Listening music therapy. That monaural therapy strengthens the right ear to allow more sound energy to reach the left, rational brain. You can attempt to teach reasonable ideas to a person who is short on left-brain energy, but the exercise is like herding cats. But, if you can strengthen the ear so that the rational brain receives the energy it needs to dominate the chaotic and obtrusive evil notions fulminating in the right-brain, the person becomes open to reason and more capable of behaving rationally.
“Simply removing weapons from society is a no-brainer. It's a good, logical start. But it doesn't remove the human threat of ‘evil genius,’ which is a physiological illness that can be treated.”
******************************************
TECHNICAL STUFF
If you want to comment on something, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca. Or just hit the ‘Reply’ button.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send me an e-mail message at the address above. Or subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message) to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at sharpedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.
You can now access current columns and seven years of archives at http://quixotic.ca
I write a second column each Wednesday, called Soft Edges, which deals somewhat more gently with issues of life and faith. To sign up for Soft Edges, write to me directly at the address above, or send a blank e-mail to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca
And for those of you who like poetry, I’ve started a webpage http://quixotic.ca/My-Poetrywhere I post (occasionally, when I feel inspired) poems that I have written. If you’d like to receive notifications about new poems, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca, or subscribe yourself to the list by sending a blankemail (no message) to poetry-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca(If it doesn’t work, please let me know.)
********************************************
PROMOTION STUFF…
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. (This is to circumvent filters that think too many links constitute spam.)
Ralph Milton’s latest project is a kind of Festival of Faith, a retelling of key biblical stories by skilled storytellers like Linnea Good and Donald Schmidt, designed to get people talking about their own faith experience. It’s a series of videos available on Youtube. I suggest you start with his introductory section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u6qRclYAa8
Ralph’s “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal -- is still available. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at wwwDOTsinghallelujahDOTca
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca>
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom
Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawoodATgmailDOTcom to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom or twatsonATsentexDOTnet