Such is the feeling I gained while standing in the rain in front of the Westin, holding a soaked placard that read "Save Not Pave." On the stage before us was an energetic woman crowned with white hair who had just been released from prison. Her name? Betty Krawczyk, who was welcomed with warmth despite the wind kicking in from beneath the Lion's Gate Bridge.
Beside me stood a costumed devil whose sign read "Highway to Hell." Neither of us knew the lyrics, but we knew we were doing what was right, and what was true.
Further to my understanding of the world as it is, I later watched former Vice President Gore clips from his visit to Vancouver, then another clip of Premier Gordon Campbell trying to issue forth rhetoric that could never match the truth; a man trying to embrace the sight of visionaries, but who lacked any vision as it was blinded by the dollars in contracts. The same clouded vision afflicts many municipalities, groping for immediacy as they sprawl and contribute to our never-ending life of comfort without quality.
A writer once said that you cannot treat your reader is if he were stupid; the only successful model was the "Dummy" series. I believe our politicians relies on our assumed stupidity or tired apathy without creating a dummy series of their own. Or are we stupid?
Is it about roads and highways, bridges and ports, Olympics, and increasing the population at the expense of what we hold dear? Some may say they are doing this for their children and grandchildren. Me? I'm doing it for me. I have to live with myself and look in the mirror.
How, then, Mr. Campbell, or you mute MLAs or you, the control-thirsty municipalities with blue-print ethics, do you look in the mirror each morning? Or do you pay someone to do it for you?
Cathleen Vecchiato, ChairFraser Valley Conservation CoalitionLangley BC
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