Dear Editor
The fact that the winter solstice (the shortest day) is upon us can be a downer for many, because it means winter has come to stay with us for awhile. On the other hand, I have always seen it as the sign that from now on - for half the coming year - each day will have more daylight than the day before.
I usually try to see the bright side of any situation, but lately that has become increasingly difficult when contemplating the state of the world, and even the state of this province and of the Canadian federation. Although the global economic and political situation seems - on both levels- to be heading for its own kind of winter solstice, there seems to be less and less probability that brighter days may follow.
No one can dispute the fact one of the main features of the kind of globalization going on ("corporatization" might be a better word) has been the increasing income gap between a very small part of the rich one per cent and everyone else in the western, "developed," world - the rich getting a lot richer with the poor getting poorer and the middle class barely hanging on.
Although the seeds of the full emergence of corporate greed ubber alles go back a long way, the movement of big money into the domination of governance really took hold relatively recently,after the emergence of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the United States. As Ronald Reagan said, about having government solving problems, "Government is the problem." The idea was government should stay out of anything having to do with business and should be limited to controlling only a few really key areas that big business didn't cover. Along with that idea was the belief income taxes on the rich should be minimal or non-existent.
Unfortunately, that philosophy didn't preclude the idea of big business interests using money to get heavily involved with all aspects of governance as well. That's when the income gap began to get wider, and when cracks began to appear in the economy generally.
I believe that, so far, Canada has weathered the storm somewhat better than most other nations because of the strong history here of community service and co-operation that has been a major element in even conservative thinking here, going all the way back to the pioneers. That seems to be changing rapidly now, and that has me worried.
Russell Lahti
Battleford
