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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-11-17, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2016. PAGE 5. Other Views Barbarians waiting at the gate We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles." — Hilaire Belloc I know I need to get out more, but the fact is in the hellish two -year-long buildup to the Nov. 8 U.S. election, I personally encountered only one person who openly supported Donald Trump – and even he was apologetic about it. I'm writing this in the early hours of Nov. 10, 2016. Really early hours. I couldn't sleep – once again. Make no mistake: we are living through one of the seminal moments of our brief passage here on earth. The U.S. election of 2016 is one of the most critical flash -points of our lives. The 9/11 of Democracy in America. Voters in a country that likes to call itself the greatest in the world has opted for the politics of fear, hate, greed, dishonesty, Fire calls Monday afternoon I ended up at a fire in Auburn where someone was watching their home, along with their possessions, memories and keepsakes, burn to the ground. Fire calls are a complicated part of my job – While it's undeniable that documenting volunteer firefighters risking life and limb to try and save the lives and property of their neighbours is something awe-inspiring and amazing, there is the dark underside of those photo opportunities: the lives left behind afterwards. Unless I missed my guess, I saw the owner of the home being claimed by fire on Monday watching helplessly as everything except the clothes on his back turned into a dark black smoke and rose from the ashes of his home and it's hard not to feel for someone in those situations. I don't want to take a photo of a fire if it's going to mean that it has to remind someone of something they lost. The same goes for automobile accidents, natural disasters and any other kind of structure fires. For better or worse, I'm there to document them, but it certainly doesn't mean that they excite me and, honestly, I'd trade every great fire photo for one person to get back what they lost in a fire. There are others, however, who apparently don't feel the same reverence for what people have lost when they come upon a fire. While attending a fire scene is usually the moment when I feel the most humanity and humility, there are always those so wrapped up in themselves, so worried about what's going on in their lives that they are completely oblivious to the fact that someone just lost everything they have and may be facing some difficult times ahead. Monday provided me a perfect example of just such an individual. The fire in Auburn was a structure on the west side of the bridge in the village and, due to the lack of a nearby, alternative route, the Ontario Provincial Police had stopped traffic to prevent any kind of intrusion into the duties of the firefighters and other emergency service workers. What that meant was there was some westbound traffic stuck on the bridge and some eastbound traffic stuck at the top of the hill on County Road 25 that could either turn around and find an alternative way 41114Arthur Black racism, misogyny and bullying. All the values we want our kids to embrace. One image keeps rolling through my brain. An e-mail I got from France that shows a close-up of the head of the Statue of Liberty. She has her face in her hands, weeping. "Give me your tired", the statue's famous poem reads, "your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest -tost to me, I lift my lamp behind the golden door!" The statue was a gift from the French people to the USA back in 1886. The French people are asking America to send her back. Some people are beginning to adjust to the new reality. I overheard someone say that the President -Elect was `gracious' in his acceptance speech. Gracious? No, he was not being gracious. The man was, as always, spewing lies. Trump lies as effortlessly as he breathes. This spectacularly repulsive, sexually predacious, contract -stiffing, four -times -bankrupt, bragg- ing, sneering troll who has never served as so much as a dog-catcher in public office is about to pocket the keys to the Oval Office. A narcissistic man -child with the temperament of an eight-year-old is about to assume the biggest, most demanding job in the world. Civilizations down through history have faced this situation before. Party -crashers called Visigoths. Mongols. Vandals. Huns. Historically the barbarians showed up as mobs led by pretty fearsome chieftains – scruffy, scarred armor -clad brutes astride warhorses. Barbarians at the gate. This time the leader wears a silk suit, a fake tan and a cheap hairpiece. And he didn't even have to knock. He's been inside the gates all along. a lesson in compassion over the river or sit and wait. Before I get much further into this tale, let me tell you, loyal readers, that I have ended up on the wrong side of a fire call before. I'm reminded of one particularly icy, cold day when I ended up on a dead-end road during a barn fire. After documenting the firefighters efforts to stop the blaze before it claimed anything else, I realized that there was no way I was going to get back onto the road until the fire was over. I called my wife and let her know I would be awhile, got the photos I needed and then sat in my car trying to keep warm. I ended up waiting four hours because I hadn't thought to stop a little earlier as to not end up where I did. Sometimes you end up on the wrong side of a closed road and you have nothing to do but wait. That's a reality of life. One particular driver, however, wasn't content with the options of wait or find another route. As the firefighters were working, the driver approached a firefighter and asked why traffic was still being stopped to which the firefighter responded the firefighters had no control over the traffic, pointing the irate driver to the Ontario Provincial Police that had blocked the road off. The man wasn't happy with that response, pointing out that, at that point, he believed the fire was under control and there was no reason for him and his fellow drivers to be delayed by the inconvenience of someone's entire life going up in smoke. Okay, maybe that's a bit of paraphrasing on the end there, but suffice to say, the man didn't care whose life was being ruined, he only cared that it was causing him to have to sit and wait. It was a disheartening lack of empathy that struck me as downright infuriating for a couple reasons. First off, the man had walked half the length of the bridge in Auburn for the sole purpose of asking when this potentially catastrophic event for someone would be done so he could start driving again. It would've taken a fraction of that time for him to simply get back in his car, turn around and find an alternative route over the river. Secondly, when informed that the OPP were in charge of traffic, he continued to question why the traffic was stopped when anyone with their eyes open could tell you why – firefighters were on the edge of the road, fire trucks were crossing the road to keep water levels sufficient to fight the fire and emergency services were all over the scene. It wasn't safe for anyone to drive through there regardless of the state of the fire. The road was closed for the safety of the emergency services worker. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've witnessed this kind of attitude. A group of bikers skirted across a road closure at the most dangerous intersection in Huron County – Base Line and Londesborough Road. These bikers were tired of waiting so they drove right past a barricade, drove across the gravel (which in the rain I can't imagine was a wise decision) and then just kept going past police officers obviously trying to keep the road closed. Despite the fact that a bad accident had occurred and people's lives were being changed forever, they felt keeping their mid- day group ride on schedule was more important than the safety and the sanctity of the collision scene. In the end, this all comes down to what I like to call the protagonist point of view. We're all guilty of it, even me. My wife will likely be happy to tell you about my feelings about drivers who decide to change lanes without signalling or cutting me off. The protagonist point of view is when you forget that the people around you are not secondary or tertiary characters in the story of your life. They have their own history, their own drives, their own struggles and their own lives to live. So while it's easy to forget that and be frustrated by the fact that the road has been closed so someone can watch everything they own go up in smoke, I urge everyone to get past that. Remember that, but for the grace of God, it isn't your home going up in smoke. Remember that some day you may end up losing something like these people have and practise a little compassion. After all, the story isn't all about you. Shawn Loughlin Shawn's Sense Sorry for everything Businessman, reality television star and World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer Donald Trump is now the President-elect of the United States and people have spent over a week pointing to the keys to his victory, which came as a shock to many. In American elections, much more so than here in Canada, demographics are dissected to death. Who are black voters backing? Who are Latinos voting for? Are women voting for Trump? Are they college-educated, or not? If the lines of division between races, sexes and classes weren't visible by the election's results, they certainly would be by way of any television coverage. One of the major narratives dating back to Trump's earliest days on the campaign trail, however, was the role of the media. The prevailing storyline in those early days was Trump calling the media "crooked" and launching an all-out assault on the media, so much so that reporters claimed to have been assaulted at his rallies by some of his supporters. (Of course, there was the man exhibiting some dangerous thinking with his "Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required" shirt at an earlier Trump rally.) The week before the election, Sylvia Stead of The Globe and Mail discussed "Trump's toxic impact on journalism" in her column and criticism has often been waged on American newspapers or networks calling for balanced reporting. Many outlets were accused of over - reporting Trump's missteps and failings and under -reporting those of his opponent Hillary Clinton. Trump's accusations of a crooked media, however, didn't hinder his election victory, which was, seemingly, never in doubt on election night. However, Trump supporters will point to their intelligence in being able to navigate and cut through a biased media to work their way down to the real issues at play. One unexpected criticism has come from Clinton supporters who now, in the face of this historic loss, also blame the media. Pundits and left-leaning reporters are now suggesting that the media covered Trump and used "fascism for profit" and there have been suggestions that the media shouldn't have even been covering Trump from the beginning. Legitimate media coverage, critics have said, emboldened Trump and treated him as a qualified candidate before he'd even won the Republican nomination, so the blood of this election, and a Trump win, is on their hands. Whether you agree with Trump's politics or not, to suggest that someone involved in a political race isn't legitimate is to operate exactly to the contrary of what journalism represents. The second a reporter allows his own opinions into a story, the narrative is poisoned. Over 60 million people voted for Trump. I cannot sit with a straight face and be told that it's the media's fault and that he's not a legitimate candidate. If 60 million people vote for him, by definition he's legitimate. If Trump was running against a ham sandwich, voters still had to willingly and voluntarily write a mark of support beside his name. The Americans have made their choice and unless a reporter was in the booth with a gun to your head, don't blame the media. Take responsibility for your country's actions and accept the results of the election. Everything can't be the media's fault. Use your brains to apply critical thinking and make decisions for yourselves rather than scapegoating the media when things don't go your way.