Trying to stay positive and

January 30, 2003

Trying to stay positive and compassionate. Put your hands up if you’ve ever lost a loved one to a drunk driver. Anyone? For all those of you who don’t live where I live here were the headlines of a couple of weeks ago. Our provincial leader is caught with twice the legal limit of booze in his system and weaving at 70 mph down a dark Hawaiian road. His speech is slurred and he needs to prop himself up against the car so as not to faceplant. I’ll go on record as saying I never supported his party in the first place -- save for a fundraiser (for one of his more environmentally aware MLA’s) I took part in for the sake of Sharkskin ... that I have regretted before, during and ever since. In the case of Gordon Campbell’s current situation I will say my agenda is not, “hey he fucked up and this is our chance to get rid of him”. That has always been Gordon Campbell’s agenda when it comes to his political adversaries. He did all he could to railroad Glenn Clark out of office for supposed wrong doings for which he was later vindicated. Glen Clarke was a guy almost my age who came from working class east Vancouver and who talked, walked and looked like just about anyone you might see at the grocery store. People like that just don’t get elected in North America...ever. It was so rare. Any mistakes he made in office were in the interests of evening the playing field for those who didn’t buy into the idea of corporate America. I really liked that guy. It was inevitable that he would be submarined somehow. Gordon Campbell might stand for all the opposite values and his political victories seem to be an end in themselves. This is only partially Gordon Campbell’s fault. When he stood up and pointed fingers it was transparently in the interest of getting elected and not with any other purpose. One goal at a time.
I believe in forgiveness at almost any cost but that doesn’t mean I will let that person back in my life in exactly the same way. Do you know what I mean? Maybe that is not forgiveness in the normal sense of the word. I forgive Gordon Campbell for what he’s done and I don’t judge him as any lesser a person but he has now forced himself onto a different path. His life should change. Its up to him to face that fact. Its not enough to say sorry and get right back into the driver’s seat promising it will never happen again. The crime he committed was one that shouldn’t allow for this. Atonement includes accepting consequences. Its time to change it up and give himself a fresh start. Take some time off and put together a plan for making the rest of your life into something else. I see people resist this phase in all fields...even music. The hardest thing to do is change one’s life direction in a major way. His identity as a politician is what is at stake here. People fool themselves as to how much the maintenance of their career identity has to do with their sanity. If his goal is truly, as he states, “public service” then he should choose public service in another form. Those who support his policies are rationalizing beyond the scope of logic. It seems demographically it is the older set that find this behaviour acceptable. Drinking and driving was not looked at in the same way by previous generations. No one wore seat belts. People did ballistic exercises, drank raw eggs, juggled uranium, spanked their kids and smoked a shit load of cigarettes. Cocaine was not addictive and women stayed home. I jest but at the same time I’m proving a point. It doesn’t fly today. He will find support with those in his graduating class and those who put their version of “economic discipline” before integrity and morals. I’m trying to stay positive and compassionate. I hope Gordon Campbell can save himself from the idea that he must remain the person he was. There are plenty of people who can do your job. Go on and go free.