Outrage over cuts

Letters

Editor: I commend you on your editorial of Feb. 1, "Hands-off government?" The horror of what is happening around us is unfathomable. We are being hit on a daily basis, regularly without let-up, with new cutbacks and cancellations of services. We hear of firings on a mass scale, closures of hospitals and the decimation of programs for the poor and disadvantaged. No more funding, for instance, to inner-city schools or to programs up north to allow students to continue with their higher education. Almost all of the services that make up our public social network are being hacked away.

As a public school teacher married to a community health nurse, it feels almost as if we were in the twin towers. There is a madman on the loose, bent on destroying the entire infrastructure that keeps our society together. He is driven by blind ideology alone, with total disregard for human cost. It is only a matter of time before it all comes crumbling down.

Gordon Campbell's style is cynically devious, reminiscent of a junta or a military dictator. He ordered the nurses to a cooling-off period and promptly legislated a one-sided contract. Similarly with teachers, the government's one and only offer was then legislated as law. After nine months of negotiations, it was obvious that this was a total waste of time designed only as a strategic ploy to distract and confuse.

Shock and horror does not begin to explain what is happening. We have not yet begun to feel the consequences of these cutbacks as they compound one on the other. There is absolutely no talk of building the economy or programs to weather the storm. There is only destruction. With massive unemployment and uncertainty, with no trust in a government that lies and breaks its own contracts, we can foresee a recession/depression of our own making, while the rest of North America pulls itself up.

I am heartened by a gradual swell of disapproval from many segments of society. Labor unions are forming coalitions. The media is beginning to expose the excesses of this government. Our own Poverty Coalition is meeting to discuss a reaction to Campbell's cuts.

Our commentaries ask why G-d punished Pharaoh for enslaving the Jews. Was it not foretold by G-d Himself that this would happen? Why blame Pharaoh? Our commentaries answer that he was punished for his excesses. He cared little for human suffering and made life worse than it was meant to be. Even with a deficit, Campbell's excesses are inexcusable. Our only hope to stop this is intense and sustained public outrage.

Sol Pavony
Vancouver

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