An imposition
One of the scenes from a comedy TV program called Hogan’s Heroes was where Sargent Schultz pointed his pistol at the head of a prisoner who did not like the gruel he was being fed and stated, “Ve haf vays of making you like your food.” It’s one of those comical sayings that never leaves your memory.
There have also been instances where changes have been forced on us, good or bad, such as the metric system. Both Canada and the United States were to make the change over together, but the States dropped out saying the cost would cripple the economy; Canada forged ahead. Today I still see both systems being used in stores and many commercial applications. There was tremendous opposition to the changes at that time.
Society is going through a major upheaval in that through law we are forced to accept different values and concepts; if we protest, we are subject to legal action resulting in punishment. Even just raising the subject in an article such as this is sure to evoke a reaction by opposing points of view, being labelled as hate literature. These laws are like holding a gun to our heads!
Current Rights and Freedoms according to our constitution have been tossed out the window in the defence of one point of view over the other. In some cases a business has been put through the legal system ringer because they made a stand based on their rights and freedoms. It is no longer the far right pushing a single point of view, but minority groups that have proposed new impositions that society is to accept without question; reinforced with laws. They are ten times more intolerant than what was in place before they became law.
In a recent Supreme Court challenge the court has ruled that the Rights and Freedoms of our Constitution must take second place to some of these new laws that have been imposed on society. What I find interesting is that the government, while forcing new laws on its citizens is in direct conflict with the Rights and Freedoms that we supposedly have, and they are very reluctant to open up the constitution in order to remove those rights and freedom, so they just re-define them!
It is no longer a question of whether we agree or not, any opposition whether voiced or written is met with immediate court challenges. The push-backs are increasing as well, with property destruction, racial tensions, even murder. Social media used well is very beneficial to society, but it has also proven to be a curse for many because of its anonymity which people protect every bit as much as the NRA does guns in the States. It seems at times, that reasoning has left the public’s mind altogether.
Of one thing I am certain, as this trend in our society continues to increase, so will the number of people falling through the cracks and ending up on the streets. In many cases that has already happened and will continue, but in greater numbers than before. We are already starting to feel the increase.
Change for the sake of change is a regular happening in our society and for the most part usually quite acceptable, except where it interferes with our rights and freedoms. To combat this hurdle, minority groups are banking on apathy in order to push their agenda to the point of making laws to protect themselves, so it is no longer just change that is happening.
What we have found with the youth on the street is that they no longer have standards by which to live by; they now must comply with new thoughts, lifestyles and even ways to think – by law. This is no longer change, it’s an imposition!
Chris Salomons is a retired Red Deer resident with a concern for the downtrodden.