The Last Spike or the Last Straw?
Feb. 14th, 2020 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blogcutterThere's come a time in this fair land when the railroad does not run. Something about indigenous protests and a gas pipeline in B.C. Should we white folk just go back to our country? What if this IS our country?
In a way, you never fully own land or have full rights over it. Ditto for air or water or anything else that we all need in life. I can buy a house in an area that's zoned residential but I can't just carry on any kind of activity I want to in that house or in my yard. I can (and must) breathe the air around me and use the water that comes out of my taps and the wi-fi I need for my computer but it's not exactly mine, even though I'm paying for it.
It's one thing to hold a one-day or even weekend-long protest along the railway lines as a way to raise awareness of the issues. It's another thing entirely to assume that once people are informed, they will be sympathetic in the long run, even if they are initially receptive to the message being sent.
I find it rather disingenuous, if not blatantly hypocritical, to frame this as concern for the environment. People who absolutely need to travel will still do so, but they'll travel in ways that are MORE harmful to the environment than the train - private vehicle, inter-city bus or plane. As usual, the folks who will be the most inconvenienced by the cancellation of passenger rail will be the ones who are, if you'll pardon the expression, the lowest ones on the totem pole.
Similar arguments apply to freight transport too although the damage there is compounded. After all, we all need to consume goods to some degree, even if we rarely venture beyond the boundaries of our home town.
Sure, we have to tread carefully when it comes to indigenous issues. It would also be a big mistake to assume that all First Nations people are on the same page about this. But I certainly hope the matter is resolved soon. Let the trains be Idle No More!
In a way, you never fully own land or have full rights over it. Ditto for air or water or anything else that we all need in life. I can buy a house in an area that's zoned residential but I can't just carry on any kind of activity I want to in that house or in my yard. I can (and must) breathe the air around me and use the water that comes out of my taps and the wi-fi I need for my computer but it's not exactly mine, even though I'm paying for it.
It's one thing to hold a one-day or even weekend-long protest along the railway lines as a way to raise awareness of the issues. It's another thing entirely to assume that once people are informed, they will be sympathetic in the long run, even if they are initially receptive to the message being sent.
I find it rather disingenuous, if not blatantly hypocritical, to frame this as concern for the environment. People who absolutely need to travel will still do so, but they'll travel in ways that are MORE harmful to the environment than the train - private vehicle, inter-city bus or plane. As usual, the folks who will be the most inconvenienced by the cancellation of passenger rail will be the ones who are, if you'll pardon the expression, the lowest ones on the totem pole.
Similar arguments apply to freight transport too although the damage there is compounded. After all, we all need to consume goods to some degree, even if we rarely venture beyond the boundaries of our home town.
Sure, we have to tread carefully when it comes to indigenous issues. It would also be a big mistake to assume that all First Nations people are on the same page about this. But I certainly hope the matter is resolved soon. Let the trains be Idle No More!
