Edmund Burke observed that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing ... In Mayerthorpe Alberta two men have learned that lesson the hard way ... They knew what their associate was going to do. They helped him return to his farm, and helped him obtain weapons ... and yet they did nothing.When they were first charged the HOWLS of "entrapment" and "framed" and so on were loud and unending ... yet, when the trial happened, we learned that they indeed confessed, not just to being involved, but to inaction when THEY KNEW what the gunman was about to do.
Four Mounties - FOUR members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would be alive today if those two men showed some backbone and did what was RIGHT, rather than acting in fear, and allowing a toxic neighbour to continued his reign of terror unfettered and unopposed.
Unfortunately, these two men who will now serve time in prison for both their action and inaction, are not unique. Small towns are filled with people JUST LIKE THEM, who will chose to do absolutely NOTHING rather than risk offending their neighbours, or rocking the proverbial boat. In my ministry experience such behaviour is found throughout our Churches as well ... my experiences in Minnedosa are exactly that - The "Good"Church people bought into the toxicity, and we were repeatedly enabled by each other and the Greater Church to keep the toxicity alive ...
In Vancouver we're hearing about the horrible night when a Polish-speaking traveller was tazered and died in the Vancouver Airport after having spent HOURS wandering around lost and confused ... now some of those who called 911, are wishing they hadn't ... the harshness of the outcome is leading intelligent, good hearted people to reconsider doing the right thing ...
As I look back over my journey, I wonder how different the outcome would have been if more had been done to stand up to the toxic, evil people who happily spread lies and gossip, and who callously engineered yet another ousting of a minister from their community ... this complicity stretched up the chain of Presbytery to my colleagues who lied and also did nothing as a system was manipulated and misused ...
And when I speak of such things ANONYMOUS comments are offered to ridicule and heckle me, and I am facetiously asked - "WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
Most frustrating for me, is seeing the parallels between those erroneous voices who responded to the charges against the two men complicit in the Mayerthorpe massacre by crying "frame" and "entrapment" and those who persist in dubbing me the guilty party in Minnedosa, and who will continue to deny the reality of that situation and attack me rather than DO WHAT IS RIGHT.
Justice DEMANDS Good People to ACT ... to speak out ... and to confront their neighbours ... if you doubt this, call up one of the families of the four fallen Mounties and tell them that the two men were innocent, and were framed ... Just because the LOUDEST voices speak out, doesn't make them RIGHT.
And in answer to the question - WHAT DO YOU WANT? that anonymous posters (I wonder why they are so damned reluctant to own their identity and to speak openly to me if I am so wrong about what transpired in Minnedosa??) keep tossing at me ... the answer is simple.
I want JUSTICE.
I want TRUTH to finally prevail.
I want my reputation to be untarnished by the BULLSHIT that was flung around Minnedosa.
AND I want those responsible for destroying my reputation, costing me my job, and forcing me out of town to be held accountable for THEIR actions and for their INACTION ...
MOST of all I want to be able to walk down the street and KNOW that the TRUTH has been told, my reputation has been restored, and the BULLSHIT that flowed from the "good church" people has been shovelled away ...
... I don't think THAT is too much to ask. But then again, in small town politicking, the outsider - be they a Mountie, a Clergy, or anyone else not from "here", is a threat, and it is a small step from doing nothing to stop malicious and hate-filled gossip, to giving a neighbour a ride back to his farm knowing full well the gun he carries is NOT for gopher shooting ... unfortunately, few have the courage to connect the dots and see the big picture ...
Guess I was fortunate it was my house and van that were shot at and not me ...
It's too bad we can't hold such people accountable for their actions and inactions ...
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At this point they came in sight of thirty forty windmills that there are on plain, and as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said to his squire, "Fortune is arranging matters for us better than we could have shaped our
desires ourselves, for look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes; for this is righteous warfare, and it is God's good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the earth."
"What giants?" said Sancho Panza.
"Those thou seest there," answered his master, "with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long."
"Look, your worship," said Sancho; "what we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the millstone go."
"It is easy to see," replied Don Quixote, "that thou art not used to this business of adventures; those are giants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat."
So saying, he gave the spur to his steed Rocinante, heedless of the cries his squire Sancho sent after him, warning him that most certainly they were windmills and not giants he was going to attack. He, however, was so positive they were giants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho, nor perceived, near as he was, what they were, but made at them shouting, "Fly not, cowards and vile beings, for a single knight attacks you."
A slight breeze at this moment sprang up, and the great sails began to move, seeing which Don Quixote exclaimed, "Though ye flourish more arms than the giant Briareus, ye have to reckon with me."
So saying, and commending himself with all his heart to his lady Dulcinea, imploring her to support him in such a peril, with lance in rest and covered by his buckler, he charged at Rocinante's fullest gallop and fell upon the first mill that stood in front of him; but as he drove his lance-point into the sail the wind whirled it round with such force that it shivered the lance to pieces, sweeping with it horse and rider, who went rolling over on the plain, in a sorry condition. Sancho hastened to his assistance as fast as his ass could go, and when he came up found him unable to move, with such a shock had Rocinante fallen with him.
"God bless me!" said Sancho, "did I not tell your worship to mind what you were about, for they were only windmills? and no one could have made any mistake about it but one who had something of the same kind in his head."
"Hush, friend Sancho," replied Don Quixote, "the fortunes of war more than any other are liable to frequent fluctuations; and moreover I think, and it is the truth, that that same sage Friston who carried off my study and books, has turned these giants into mills in order to rob me of the glory of vanquishing them, such is the enmity he bears me; but in the end his wicked arts will avail but little against my good sword."
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