Community Activism





This past Monday was a Statutory Holiday, i watched the local news and one of the top stories featured a man labelled a community activist for Wise Up Winnipeg. Apparently, this group is trying to get the reduced speed while travelling in a school zone waived on a Statutory Holiday.
Hey, I get it. They are trying to save roughly 20 seconds of drive time. Over time, this really adds up. I can imagine that over years this will add up to roughly the equivalent time that they spend waiting in a Tim Horton's drive-thru every day.
However, this was not a news story. I know there is a lot of talk lately of fake news and it is hard to differentiate what is and isn't a news story. i will attempt to help with this clarification. A news story occurs when something actually happens. A man holding up a sign in the middle of the street is not news, it is actually sad.
I love the idea of community activism and I think it is desperately needed. The idea of community members banding together to create positive change is exciting. However, wasting any resources on such a trivial cause is a waste of time and energy. And, for the media to get sucked into covering it demonstrates a complete lack of responsibility. There is no such thing as a "slow" news day. There is always a story of an injustice somewhere; or a positive story of someone demonstrating humanity to someone. There are real issues out there, and this certainly was not one.
I can only imagine what Louis Riel would have thought. The irony of this group thinking that they were demonstrating "activism" would not be lost on him. One can not think of Riel without thinking Rebellion. Challenge authority, challenge the status quo, try to benefit your community, but actually make a difference. And don't take the complacent way out. Don't hold a sign on a road and claim to be an activist. Actually, go out and meet your neighbours and create strategies. How can we ever expect politicians to solve our social issues when we cant even amount a call to action. Why didn't we spend this day actually honoring him by attempting to adopt his spirit.
But, equally important is to ask why we need a bylaw to tell us to slow down in school zones. Is this not common sense? This is the true tragedy. What happened to common sense? Why are we so devoid of thinking on our own that we have to be told everything and if it is not "policy" or a "bylaw", we can't figure it out. Why do we need so much time figuring out how to label a bathroom? Why do we need someone to demonstrate how to put on a seatbelt when we are on an airplane? Isn't this basic common sense?
We desperately need social activism. W e need a common sense revolution. Let's work together and turn common sense into common practice.

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