Perspective Part Deux

I had breakfast with a friend today whose company is sending him on a trip to Mexico in the fall. The amount of planning that they are going through to ensure he is able to get home safely is significant. Usually you only worried about things like that when you were travelling to corrupt and unstable countries. His big issue? He needs to avoid going through the USA on his way to Mexico. Who would have thought that was going to be an issue a couple of months ago?

The perspective that half the population has when it comes to fear confounds me. Xenophobia has become normalized in a way that should shock us all. The fact that so many are willing to give up some of their freedom to address their fear is even more confounding. Don’t even get me started about the number of Canadians who died in Afghanistan fighting for our freedom while Stephen Harper was dismantling the very freedom they were fighting for in the name of national security and the economy.

The world is changing, and not in a good way. If we don’t clear our perspective, xenophobia will become normalized, just as protecting the economy over freedom and the environment already has.

“ How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.” - Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)