There is tonnes of money buried in Aberdeen’s frontyard. Diverse interested parties are doing all in their power to extract that money. They are careful risk managers, well able to maximize the margin of profit available in the proposed enterprise. They are the rich, who want only to be richer, and the want to be rich who serve them.
By their accounting the health and well-being of children in the neighbourhood, as in the region and beyond, is considered to be negotiable. They will acknowledge the percentage of ill effect and explain that this is a minimal (human) cost, in exchange for a substantial (monetary) gain.
My dilemma, as a citizen, consists in the lack of determination in our delegated leadership. Can it be that those entrusted with stewardship of the common good cannot distinguish between what hinders and what helps? A token share in the booty to be torn from the land appears to be more than adequate to persuade them. It seems they take the proponent for a benefactor rather than a thief. It saddens me to say that this is not a new story in our human history.
Some of you trust in the scriptures. I encourage you to call forward the memory of King Ahab, who coveted the property of his neighbour Naboth. It does not go well with those who let ambition and greed set the pace.
There is “much more” to life than money. Hopefully this “much more” will factor in the final adjudication of the proponent’s interest in our fair city.
REV. GEORGE FEENSTRA
Kamloops
