In the Face of Bankruptcy and Bill 44, Gardening.

Yesterday was strange.

The announcement that General Motors was indeed going bankrupt came early in the morning - it seems I am now a shareholder in that company, along with every other Canadian (and American), their kids, and their kids' kids. Not quite the kind of investing I'm accustomed to making. I would have liked a little more say in the matter. Frankly, I'm quite nauseated at the idea that a company can run itself into the ground, obtain billions of dollars of government bail out money, THEN go into bankruptcy, get rid of its debt and then come out of bankruptcy a few short months later all shiny and new, with squeaky clean books and no lessons learned. Um, shouldn't you have done that in the first place? I guess the saying 'live by the sword (of capitalism), die by the sword' only applies to ordinary people, not to multinational corporations who make large donations to certain political parties.

And then, to cap off the day, Bill 44 is passed. This is the most embarrassing, petty and vindictive legislation I have ever seen the Alberta government pass, and that's saying something. The Alberta government takes more than 10 years to add sexual orientation to their list of things that can't be discriminated against, and in the same bill back stab the people whose rights they are supposed to (finally) be protecting. And now teachers have to be afraid that every time the topic of sex, sexual orientation or religion comes up, they risk being hauled in front of a human rights commission. How can you teach people that human rights apply to everyone, when you can't talk about how those human rights apply to certain groups? This isn't governance, this is manipulative, gamesmanship, and Stelmach and Co. should be ashamed of themselves. What are they so afraid of, anyway?

So. In the face of so much soul-destroying crapola, what is an ordinary person to do? Well, it looks like more and more people are doing it*: veggie gardening. This year two of my close neighbors have planted medium and large size gardens and one of them is also keeping chickens! And another one of my family members is starting a garden this year as well! Do they feel the soul destroying crapola too? Or maybe they, like me, just want to witness something green, true and full of pontential again, instead of listening to the lies, spin and overall decaying putresence that oozes from our politicians' mouths on a near-daily basis.

It's funny, the only time I feel clean these days is when I have garden soil on my hands.

(*Uh oh. I said 'doing it.' I hope the Alberta government knows I didn't mean anything sexual by that. Well, except there is a lot of sex in gardening, all that pollination and pistils and stamens and, oh my, those crazy hermaphroditic earthworms. Wait, does this mean that parents can pull their kids out of classes on plant and invertabrate biology now? Hmmm...)