Yesterday was a sobering day for Ontarians. The news was grim. Martin Regg Cohn writes:
On Friday, for the first time, Ontario’s top public health experts not only predicted how many people may die by month’s end. More importantly, they also estimated how many have been saved to date and will be spared in the days to come.
Yes, 1,600 are likely to die by April 30 on current trends. But if society can maintain vigilance and social distancing, the latest modelling suggests we would be saving — sparing — 4,400 lives that would otherwise be included in the grim tally of 6,000 total deaths projected in Ontario’s business-as-usual scenario.
In other words, and in precise numbers, we are on track to reduce the death toll by 73 per cent. That is a remarkable force multiplier and life saver, if only we stay the course. (Indeed, in a best-case scenario, we could reduce the death toll as low as 200 with even stronger measures, some of which were added Friday.)
It is also a powerful message of hope. But it also requires belief anchored in evidence and buttressed by resolve.
We're in a grim situation. But it could be grimmer. What -- or who -- will make the difference is us. That's the message from yesterday. We face a health and an economic crisis. But, most of all, we face a crisis of character.
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There is a quotation in today's print edition of The Star by Nelson Mandela, Owen, that gets to the heart of matter:
"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
Following those words is this commentary:
We will one day cast off the chains that now keep us from our previous lives. But until then, they are not simply constraints; in that they preserve the lives of others, these chains we choose to wear are a kind of freedom.
Remember Atticus Finch's advice to Scout, Lorne? It's important to be able to get into another person's skin and walk around in it.
.. I used the term 'The Great Leveling'.. late Jan or early Feb. Yesterday's Public Ontario Broadcast was seen/heard as 'Late from the Gate'.. in this household.. News we already Knew. Part of the flattening of the news curve re what medical science has been telling the government 'authorities' who then filter it along to 'soften the blow' .. avoid panicking the public.. by spreading out the dispensation of hard facts.
When I posted that term.. it was for good reason. I had read or absorbed via media osmosis (mainly Indy) enough unarguable 'science' to understand the USA 'was in the shitter'.. and what were the primary indisputable reasons why. Well, 'the shit is now hitting the fan' as promised.. and we aint seen the half of it.. not even close. The socioeconomic reality may best resemble a tsunami as seen when the tide mysteriously retracts.. what follows is astonishing destruction.. but in this case not limited by proximity to the shore.. no not at all
The American historian, John Meacham, says that the United States -- like the man in the White House -- has been living in a "reality distortion field," sal. When the tide goes out, you can't ignore the reality it leaves behind.
"Never again, in the history of Canada, should we ever be beholden to companies around the world, or countries around the world, for the safety and well being of the people of Canada. We have the technology; we have the ingenuity; we have the engineering might, the manufacturing might. There's nothing we can't build right here in Ontario. … We can't be going over to other sources because we're going to save a nickel."
Harper's stooges had better remind Doug of what he's supposed to have read in the copy of the Libertarian Primer for Disturbed Teenagers that they gave him when they joined Ford Nation. He's actually suggesting that he would violate Market Law by treating all those nickels and the investment interests entitled to them with such total disrespect. Sounds like Communism to me.
Ironic, isn't it, John? Ford was wholeheartedly behind Harper. Is this mutiny?
Amazing how the free market has embrased socialism.
That said it always did , but in a way that still promoted the free market!
Have they finally been caught with their pants down?
TB
It's straight out of the neoliberal playbook, TB -- privatize profits but socialize losses.
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