By DENA EAKLES | rural Ontario

I’ve had the belief for a long time that there are more people willing to pick up a hoe than a gun. In other words, there are more people wanting to live in peace and harmony rather than in violent discord. 

Living in the United States tends to make us doubt that possibility. Another school shooting, another pipeline breach, more felony arrests of nonviolent activists, and escalating fear of LGBTQ+ keeps getting in the way of “live and let live.”

As I sat in Vernon Electric Cooperative’s annual meeting on March 25 and witnessed the majority of members voting against their own interests and willing to sacrifice democratic control, I had to ponder my own belief that more people want peace than not. I suppose it can be argued that authoritarian rule and control by a few is preferred because it requires less thinking.  But the question remains: How does it feel?

How does it feel when you read about another school shooting yet continue to offer thoughts and prayers instead of applying pressure on legislators to change the course of things? How does it feel to know that queer folk are being subjected to sub-human treatment? How does it feel to know this country was founded on the deliberate subjugation of human beings for wealth and pretend it isn’t so? 

I’m not willing to give up my understanding that more people want peace. But I will admit to this: too few are willing to say and to do the necessary things to make living in a peaceful way a reality. 

Martin Luther King spoke great wisdom when he said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. “

Find your voice, friends. Before it’s too late.

Dena Eakles, from letkindnesswin.com