Tuesday, November 22, 2005

A Letter to Rex

The following is the body of an email I sent to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation following an editorial featuring curmudgeonly journalist Rex Murphy. It was about 2:00 am and I thought I was being rather brilliant at the time.

Good evening, all...
I had the pleasure this evening of catching a repeat of Rex Murphy's "Point of View" on CBC Newsworld. I say pleasure, because just as I thought Mr. Murphy was about to turn recent shooting deaths in my hometown of Toronto into political fuel for the anti gun registry fires, he addressed my concerns himself. Rarely have I heard commentary that so deftly gelled my own vague perceptions into words. If the gun registry was a legislative effort concocted to communicate a feeling of proactive momentum to the voting public, it is only a single symptom in the overwhelmingly pervasive disease of people-pleasing policy that has permeated our government at every level.
Sadly, the socialist types that dominate the Toronto City Council have fallen for Thomas More's concept of Utopia. They tend to adopt a long term view of society that ignores the realities of the present. The cliché is the midnight basketball program - a suggestion that if the kids in troubled neighbourhoods simply had something more wholesome than crime with which to be involved then everything would work out for the best. Hugs and kisses and rainbows all around.
The simple fact is that we do need comprehensive social programs to address a multitude of elements contributing to the cultural collapse that has us all seeking a pinpoint of light or a hint of fresh air. Unfortunately, we should have addressed the problem thirty years ago. A gun registry is useless because it does not have an impact on fatherless children. It does not alleviate poverty. Registering legal guns does not help a child in my city make a positive choice for the future. It does nothing to keep a superficial culture of materialism, misogyny and drugs away from schoolchildren.
I am frustrated to see my elected policymakers prescribing a change in diet, more exercise and regular check-ups. The problem inherent with a politically correct approach is that it fails to deal with a cancer that is already spreading through our urban body.
We need prevention, yes, but we also need treatment. When a cancer patient undergoes chemotherapy there is necessarily a number of healthy cells that become damaged in the process. It seems that those whom we have selected to govern on our behalf are unwilling to accept the kind of "collateral damage" that must be incurred in flushing the disease from our city.
If we want a remedy, it's time we decided to swallow a rather bitter pill.

Thanks, Rex - you are my favourite Newfie apart from my wife.

Yours,
Joshua Hardaker

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