International Superstars & Poor Little Us…
I must admit I have always respected and even admired Bishop Tutu. He has been a stand-up kind of guy. I have always liked Neil Young and admired how he dealt with the realities of having mentally/physically challenged offspring. But, for the life of me, I can’t figure out how two [2] people who themselves rely on the products of petroleum (especially Neil in his vinyl records & cd’s marketing) find it ethically consistent to become ardent spokespeople for the anti-oil sands movement. Of course, I find that movement somewhat inconsistent itself, especially when many are wearing synthetic clothing, travelling all over the planet, using paper-related placards and plastic-cased cell phones and all the while seemingly obvious to where all this stuff comes from. Now over my meagre lifetime, I have been involved in environmental rehabilitation projects (and in Aboriginal issues) always with the intent – how do we become better stewards of the gifts we have been given?

Haven’t always been one hundred percent [100%] right, but I’ve been party to some pretty exciting advancements – the Okanagan Basin Study in the early 70’s, the Salmonid Enhancement Program in the late 70’s, development of Aboriginal Independent Schools in the 80’s & early 90’s. I’ve also spent time working with forestry, hydro and related resource-based worlds. Whenever we worked towards the goal of becoming better stewards, we seemed to come up with better solutions. Sometimes there were those on the fringe who found things too slow or too compromising, but when all is said and done, the world moved forward (visit the Okanagan today and see how agriculture still keeps the Valley green and taste the wine to see how quality has grown). There was a time when I was asked to work with some coal-producing power people – they wanted to know how they could improve their communications with the public. I asked them what they were doing to make sure when they were finished mining that the world looked better than before they started. And allow it’s a different group in a different location, drive the road from Edmonton to Jasper and notice how the strip mines are almost unnoticeable.

I bring all this up to simply ask: why haven’t Neil & the Bishop asked the same question? Why aren’t they using their power of influence to say: You know, I need petroleum products to actually be here and I know that the petroleum industry can generate a great deal of wealth that we can use to invest in alternatives that we help us prolong the life of petroleum for those products we will need – like the car bodies for the Tesla automobiles, for the many building products & clothing. So let’s start working together to figure out how we can clean up whatever needs to be cleaned up, and invest in a future together. And for my part, I’m going back home and will immediately work to reduce my own carbon footprint and try to influence those around me. And then, having helped encourage the industry, First Nations, oil workers and poor me to get back into a cooperative mood, the Bishop could return and start to work on the trials & tribulations within South Africa (both with the excessive use of coal & its by-products, and the world of crime and violence) while Neil could make sure he buys back all vinyl & cd’s from willing sellers and gives them free on-line access to his music.

We need to get back to working towards better. It helps us not much to be constantly attacking each other. Constructive conversation prevents escalation of animosity which in itself is not necessarily bad, but animosity if it builds to a certain point spawns hatred. And we are beginning to see the re-immergence of hatred in our country (not just in our world at large). It was the unchecked growth of hatred in the nineteenth [19th] century in Ireland (both Protestant and Roman Catholic church leaders share responsibility for that) which led to the troubles – it was the unchecked growth of hatred in the twentieth [20th] century in the middle east which led to civil wars and genocide (all kinds of religious leaders share in that development) – and if unchecked, the growth of hatred in this century may well lead to a kind of civil war (although because of the marginalisation of the church, we won’t be able to blame religious leaders this time) in our land.

The Christian commandment to love your neighbour as yourself is worth remembering. More importantly, this commandment in one form or another, also shows up in even major religious and theosophy throughout the world and/or belief systems. Perhaps it’s time we all made a little more effort to try to practice it. The oil patch, the corporate sector, the public servant, the ordinary joe/mary citizen – all of us poor folk – have challenges in front of us. We have made mistakes, and often though we live in glass houses, we have thrown stones. Let’s now put down the stones and start trying to get to better…