PEA SOUP PLEASE

I figure while everyone is bringing their pots and pans out into the streets I should atleast try and get a free meal. I am pretty sure if they started posting a menu each evening more people would show up. I am convinced they have the ability to cook anything you want as i saw three guys dragging a propane BBQ along the street banging happily away. Hell they could even set up a drive through. Imagine that, a mobile drive through.May i take your order? ''Oui, I would like a double-double, a ham and swiss on regular white and a chocolate doughnut'. We don't serve that here that's food for Capitalists! What do you mean that’s capitalistic food? ''How about a Big mac, fries and a diet coke?'' That’s Capitalistic also? CRAP! Ok then how about you cook me up a bowl of Pea soup? That doesn't seem Capitalistic and even kind of Quebecois. Oh could it have some chunks of ham and bacon in it? Some things never cease to fascinate me. In this whole debacle there are three (3) things in particular. 1. How outlandish people can be. 2. How a minority can seem to speak for the majority. 3. How hypocritical these kids are.

Lets start by number 1. The outlandish part. When you take the expression everything but the Kitchen sink ( I think i might even have seen one of those) into the streets to ''make a point'' you might want to look up ''outlandish'' in the dictionary. When you bring your 5 and 7 year olds to roam the streets at night to clang on metal pots and pans you might want to look up ''good parenting'' in the dictionary. When you start believing that you are actually out in the street making a point about repression and you live in one of the freest Countries in the world you might want to look up ''delusional'' in the dictionary. Quebec is NOT a police State, it is not governed by a repressive dictatorship bent on Right wing policies. It is a government elected by the people for the people. Besides that, you couldn't get much more to the left in this Province if you attended a NASCAR race (you know, driving on an oval making left turns only). While the aspiring street cooks were parading in the street 92 people were massacred in Syria by the Government in power. Hey chef Ramsey wanna-be's. You want to see what repression, dictatorships and lack of freedoms look like? Get on a plane to the one of the 30 plus places on earth where you can disappear simply for saying what's on your mind. In those Countries they don't hit you with pepper spray, tear gas and plastic bullets. They don't warn you 10 or 15 times in an evening NOT to do something. NO SIR! In those Countries they come get you in the middle of the night, day, morning, it doesn't matter. Then they lock you in a room (after they torture, rape and mutilate you) and they don't just throw away the key, they throw away the room. So when you claim you and your children are out in the street protecting your fundamental rights take a look at what incredible rights you benefit from before crapping on the ones you enjoy.

Number 2. The minority speaking for the majority. There are approximately 8 million people in the Province of Quebec. So here is a message that the main stream press seems to have lost in translation. When two Thousand, or five thousand or twenty thousand or one hundred Thousand people or even Two Hundred and fifty thousand people show up to ‘Protest’’ those people account for the smallest portion of the population. They are not the majority, they are not ‘’incredible’’ numbers which demonstrate a massive dissatisfaction with the Government or its bill C78 (although i can understand peoples frustration with this government). Those numbers represent less then 1% of the population on an ongoing basis and not even 4 % of the population in the biggest demonstrations (250,000). We know what sells news papers. We know what sells advertising time on the local and 24 hrs news networks. We know what sells hit advertising on the internet. We know sensationalism goes a long and in many cases, the only way, to SELL! So while a large number of your journalists actively work to mold the future of this story; the majority understands that your simply like pimps trying to push your product and make it as attractive as possible to lure the most clients you can. Now it would be wrong for me to paint all journalists with the same brush. There are those who have not forgotten what it is to report, ‘’THE FACTS’’. Unfortunately they seem to be in the minority also. In this particular situation the silent majority is just as responsible for the current situation because sometimes your unwillingness to participate in the dialog will end up making you unwilling accomplices to the end result.

3. The hypocrite kids. Over 1000 injunctions against them in the courts. NOT ONE of those injunctions respected by them. Bill 78 comes into law and what do those same kids do? They go to court to get an injunction. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? There is this immature part of me that hopes that if for some ridiculous reason the courts were to side with the kids on C78 that the Government would just ignore whatever the court ruled just like the kids have done since day one of their ‘’Boycott’’. What the kids action has shown everyone in this province including the night parading kitchen brigade is that democracy in this province is a pick and chose menu. You do not like something, you don’t respect it. It does not matter if its the law. If it works against you, you fight it with the same tools used against you and then you can bet they will demand that their legal rights be respected.. So in essence every time you take to the streets your saying that democracy and the law only matters to you if its on your side. You are in essence as much a hypocrite as those kids. Democracy and the law are not easy. They can be ugly and can often leave a bad taste in your mouth. In this Country and in this Province the only thing that seperates us from Syria and those 30 other places; is that no matter how much we might not like something we respect it and obide by it. We don't flaunt the law, we don't spit on it. We don't vandalise and demonstrate or intimidate. Why don't we? Because WE have the knowledge that WE have the strongest tool of all to change what WE don't like. ITS CALLED A VOTE!

Summer is on our doorstep. It hasn’t even really started to get hot and everyone is already burnt out. The merchants losing tens of thousands of dollars are tired. The police doing the best they can in nearly impossible conditions are burnt out, the Politicians (the ones with an ounce of logic) are burnt out. A lot of smart young adults (not boycotting) who want just to get their education are burnt out. I bet even some of those yahoo protestors are tired to. The silent majority are tired to (although I don’t know why. They haven’t done anything). Yes friends everyone is burnt out and summer hasn’t even started. Maybe its time to change the menu. ‘’Could I have a Pina Colada and cancel my order for the pea soup….it kind of makes you bloated this time of the year.