Poverty backlash kills 'civil cities'

Good article; fear-mongering at the expense of the marginalized is the backbone of social conservative idealogy.

I like the juxtaposition between the frenzied reaction to the stabbing of Ross Hammond and the indifference to the murder of homeless man Paul Croutch at the hands of reservists.

Rosie Dimanno has been oddly silent about the murder of Paul Croutch. Where are the lengthy columns choked with purple prose making sweeping generalizations about Canadian Army reservists who gang up on and beat to death a harmless guy?

Rosie Dimanno is Exhibit A in the trial that proves the Toronto Star is just another corporate mouthpiece, another cog in the mainstream media machine manufacturing consent and mindless consensus.

The liberal media doesn't exist. Only the media of the corporatist LIberal Party does - and even it's an endangered species.

Well, when it comes to substance abuse and prostitution, it all comes down to colour, as far as I can tell. If the scene is controlled or dominated by biker colours, it's violence. If it's controlled by the other gang in lab coat white colours, then it isn't violence. The shame of it is, even most people on the left see it that way.

It all comes down to class warfare. Economics colour the way we interpret the laws, the problems and the solutions.

The conservative reaction is easily predictable and justifiably condemnable. But are the solutions put forward by progressives over the years beyond critique? Are criticisms to be dismissed as anti poverty out of hand?

I see social housing projects that just promote poverty. We live in a time and society that provides-- not perfect, not all encompassing-- but undeniably better help to those with substance abuse and other problems than certainly any Canadian society before it, yet there seems to be no abatement of these social problems. In fact, they seem to be getting worse.

It would be specious to suggest that efforts to solve these problems end up causing them, as many conservatives gleefully point out.

I think we on the left spend too much time and energy fighting fires on the periphery of the blaze.

We need to start demanding democratization of our political system. We need to demand the dismantling of the class warfare machine that is our judicial and law enforcement system.

And we need to develop real consequences for when these demands are not met.

Conservative pundits and the people who are in control will never be moved by compassion or reason. All they know is self interest.

It's time to start negatively effecting their self interest.

[ 04 September 2007: Message edited by: Tommy_Paine ]

Maybe I am ignorant of the law, and wrong...and lazy for not looking it up... but I think criminal charges don't always have to be laid by the Crown. I believe, like arrests, prosecutions can be done by citizens. I wouldn't undertake such actions at the drop of a hat, or without developing serious expertise, but I think it could have great effect if done right. Or how about class action law suits against Crowns Attorney or law enforcement that do not investigate or lay charges in an equitable manner?

The media is the media. They are free, and damn well aught to be free, to opine, report, spin and slant things they way they see fit.

But we are free also. If we don't like it, we are free to make a point of causing whatever legal economic hardship we can with whatever business' full page add comes first in the publication you take issue with.

I cut my teeth as a union rep in an old fashioned tough as nails factory. As a rookie, I did my best to fashion my arguments with them in terms of right and wrong, in terms of compassion, and in terms of reason. But I quickly found out that the only way to effect change was to find an economic lever on them, and pull it.

And that, when you can do it, works like magic... if you can ignore their bleatings about compassion, right and wrong, and reason. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]