Dear Jack Layton,
That I could find half the passionate social energy and drive that you had -- even when you were very sick.
I wish I was 20 years younger and could run longer and harder with your democratic ideals -- and build on them, until I could finally help you get your 'Canadian Majority'.
And it will probably have to be on my own writing platform here in the confines and 'lecture rooms' of 'Hegel's Hotel'.
Did you call yourself a 'socialist', Mr. Layton? (Still a partly 'dirty word' in a Capitalist Society...)
Or were you simply a rare 'Capitalist with a Social Conscience'?
When other politicians and corporate capitalists -- those in the elite power positions -- were making laws that benefited themselves and their main lobbyists who kept them in power....
And obviously, you too, Jack, knew how to at least survive playing the 'Lobbyist Game'...Call it 'The System' -- or 'The Combine' -- if you will...You can't be in politics as long as you were without at least knowing how to play the game...
The most undemocratic part of Canadian and American democracy is that politicians need the heavy financial contributions of their lobbyists to both get into power -- and then to stay in power...with 'conditions attached'...
Still, Jack Layton, you believed -- as I do too -- that Capitalism cannot only benefit the rich, the elite, and those in power if we are to have a decently, harmonious and stable society. The people at the bottom and in the middle of the Capitalist quagmire need to be able to make a decent living too.
I would carry this diatribe much deeper into the ramifications of 'free trade' and 'global capitalism' on North American Society over the last 20 years.
But I would immediately become sarcastic and cynical -- which you, Your Honoourable Jack Layton would find some way to step around and still smile and endear yourself to people -- even your political competitors -- while still, very much, getting your point across.
What was the quote I read in all the papers today? 'Love is better than anger...optimism is better than something...let's just say 'cynicism' for now...and hope is better than despair...
Well, at this moment, Jack, I am feeling very angry, cynical, and leaning towards signifcant despair...
Maybe partly because you just left us before your mission could take us to the next level...
Anyways, I will keep your wonderful quote close to me for the next considerable while....while I look for a way to climb back out of Nietzsche's Abyss...by myself...
Right now, there is a chasm in Canadian -- indeed, North American -- Society that is as big as St. Andereas Fault. It separates the upper middle class from the lower middle, and the lower, class. It separates the workers's incomes whose are still going up, or at least are entrenched around the $60,000 and up mark from those whose have been steadily going down for the last five or ten years...the direct and/or indirect consequence of 'free trade', 'global capitalism', collapsing unions, high unemploment...and unscrupulous business owners finding ways to get around the 'minimum wage barrier' and treating their workers like they were underground, illegal Mexican workers...They don't speak up because they want to keep their jobs...and they have no unions to protect them...
Usually 'the corporate employee abuses' are done through 'part-time jobs' and 'contract work'...
I boil and I seethe...and I want to destroy everything around me...from top to bottom...and then jump into my van...and head to Alberta where they have no HST...(A a supposed 'contractor', making about minimum wage, HST comes off my paycheque twice a month...)
But this is Jack Layton's column...
And I will bow to a much more socially sophisticated and polished man who could advance his 'Capitalism With A Conscience' Agenda in a way that I still am trying to learn from him how...
A day later than most,
I weep over your death, Mr. Layton...
I am very, very sad to see you gone...
You remain my main mentor in Canadian politics,
A man who stayed true to his political ideals,
His vision...
As far as I could see...
And didn't get derailed in all the ways...
That young, idealist politicians...
Become derailed by money and power...
And turn into older, more 'seasoned', jaded, narcissistic politicians...
Losing their integrity and character along the way...
'Their Central, Idealistic Core'...
That made them want to be...
Politicians in the first place...
Money changes everything...
But from this distance...
You stayed pretty true...
To you...Jack Layton...
And for that I thank you...
For being...
My Beacon In The Political Night...
-- dgb, August 23rd, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
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