Due Process

There is a political situation brewing into our lives at present and giving us all cause to debate amongst ourselves. Ought one to believe that "due process" comes before action to stop a problem that has presented obvious and factual symptoms or does one wait until every letter of the law has been ascertained and processed. I think the former. Why? While "due process" is perhaps the correct way of handling such a situation, very often, it, rather than the crime, becomes the monster that encompasses so many aspects that years go by in the massive realm of legal wranglings and tangents that the law in the end, becomes more important than its cause for being there. You have to ask, is  justice served or is it merely servitude to the law.  It's not uncommon to sit in a courtroom and feel frustrated while lawyers give excuses week after week for delaying a sentence or hearing because the charged is "out of town", "ill" , has an "urgent family matter" or some other inane excuse of which the details are left mysterious and no one seems interested in taking up the court's time and expense to present proof. The judge usually raps his or her gavel without question, and the matter is put on to another date. This happens time and time again if you have ever sat in a courtroom long enough to witness the fiasco. One can't fairly complain because this is part of any citizen's rights even though suspicion of the delay tactic being used improperly must remain unspoken. To me, it jars the court's credibility. In the matter of which I speak, the longer a delay goes on, the more complications it takes on. The effect is like a great, sticky gob of snowball rolling along as bits and pieces, in this case, of political machinery and machinations that are continuously tossed into its path, are absorbed into the situation as it  grinds along. The media of course is at the back, pushing, having nothing more exciting to report than fashion shows and book festivals. What is at stake, is money, of course, and that always over-rides everything else especially when it is public money. We elect people to handle the sizeable amount of money that we pay every year into the public coffer and we expect, just as we do at home, it to be  wisely spent. A huge amount of it by the elected, is not. No one can dispute that certain luxuries are included in the mix. Entertainments and celebrations, even holidays seem to be part of the necessary life-style of those we see blethering on Parliament Fridays when the show is on and the press allows us to sit in on the fun. Those whom we elect for the most part do their work well and faithfully but the same as at home, budgets have to be adhered to, and the rules around it must be observed diligently. That money from you and I is a contribution from our daily lives. You can't blame the servant, you must see the master as responsible. And if what you see is wrong, "due process" or not, it is simply wrong and something should be and has to be done immediately to correct the matter. The haggling and nagging details can be worked out later by those in the business of nit picking. I am for seeing logical justice done now and ironing out the wrinkles later.

Is The Doctor In?

I called my doctor the other day and to my surprise, he wasn't in. I don't usually bother him with much else but prescription renewal. He is a busy man what with his golf and all. He doesn't do hospitals. What he does do is listed on his wall along with the price list. You are permitted to ask him no more than one question and you must tell the "nurse"  "the nature of your visit". How much "nature" can one do in fifteen minutes? When I am really ill, I go straight to the hospital, waiting lines notwithstanding. But getting back on topic, the doctor wasn't in because the doctor had moved his offices. No one told me. Gone was the doctor and my folder containing my bodily history. The "nurse" who is actually a graduate of a local high school, well trained in keyboarding and answering phones with " could you hold please?". I always want to ask: what do you want me to hold? but she disappears before I can get the answer out. I've learned to reply to questions with questions. Where was my doctor? The "nurse" told me that  he was not far from his present office. "Oh", she remarked flippantly, "we are just six kilometers away, you know, across the highway". The "highway" happens to be a major cross Canada speedway that people like me try and avoid if at all possible. I replied "Where across the highway is the office?"  She answered with a hurried tone, "Just look us up on The Net and you'll find a map.". I was glad that I had  a "Net" to refer to. Many people don't have a computer but I am not brave enough not to have one.  I looked the office "up" on the computer and found only the doctor's old address and a map of how to get there. The new address was not to be found. I took out my phone book and looked for the nearest Walk-In Clinic. I found doctors who were "in". I called, got an appointment immediately and went there. There were no lovely leather chairs to loll in while waiting and the place, while clean, was pleasantly efficient and utilitarian. Good enough for me. I am not there to appreciate décor. The doctor I got was efficient but she was not taking new patients. "Just call the office". That was also good enough for me. On leaving I plucked the doctors' schedules off the wall along with which medical folk would be in at what time during the month. Now that's what I call a good medical clinic! The doctor's were in - in my good books.

Eyes Wide Open

Eyes are open but they don't see sometimes for some reason. Recently, mine were opened and what I saw surprised me. Formerly, there had been a rosy fog that enveloped the realities and when it was swept away, I found that I had been slogging around in a dark place.  It was a rude awakening to be sure but not one with fatal results.  How I had fallen in with  a crew of misfits intrigued me. It did not defeat me. I had thought these individuals were merely lost temporarily and that somehow they would change if I just had faith in them and believed in their good side.  Unfortunately, seek as I might, after countless tries, there wasn't any "good" to be found. That may sound negative but when you try long and hard enough, you finally succumb to truth and realize that yes, there is evil and that it is too big a burden for most of us to carry for long. Sometimes,you simply have to dump the baggage and move on. It is a wrench because the negative atmosphere you lived in is not conducive to change and can become toxic. Trust me, you will survive if you find yourself slammed into reality and have to escape. It can be done. While it may not seem so, beyond the wall of negativity that you are presently in, there is a clean and good place and the barriers can be scaled so that you can get on with what is good and beautiful and true. When you get to the other side, the better side, it will be another learning experience. What you lost needs to be found again and there are others who understand and will help. But mainly what lies inside you, not others is what you can call on. Have faith in yourself, what you love about yourself and ways you can rebuild yourself to become strong and resourceful and meet all of the new experiences outside waiting for you to discover.

Not Normal

Normal, according to a definition of the word, is generally speaking, things or creatures that do not depart from the regular, usual, expected state. I suppose that means that because a whole load of matters or beings that do similar things with similar results are normal, everything else is not. It sets one to wondering how this applies. There is normal behaviour but the rules change.  What used to be  rude table manners such as picking up a chicken leg with the fingers is now normal. In medieval times it was normal, then it went out of style and became bad decorum but now it is back to normal. So normal fluctuates. Normal speech used to be The King's English in certain places and French, but now normal speech can be the two languages plus a host of others we hear all around us. Normal applies to all sorts of situations. What is mystifying, is that some normal people go out of their way to find things that are not normal. They look for curiosities and rarities: things that depart from the normal and become valuable because of it.  A stamp or coin that is formed in an abnormal way is sought after. Designed objects: buildings, art works, are admired when they are unusual and different. People want to depart from the normal by dressing uniquely or choosing to attempt to do something out of the normal range or try to create an invention that departs from the norm. If this is true, why does human nature cluck its tongue at some whose behaviour for a physical or mental reason, cannot be "normal". Why can't we say "hello" or "how are you today?" Street people live in a way that is often scorned or pitied. Those with mental aberrations are stared at or shunned. Persons with physical departures from what looks normal are politely avoided. Youngsters with difficult physical or social problems are outcast by their peers or ridiculed by them. So it appears that we pick and choose which abnormals are suitable and which are not. Our society appears to list them on a popularity scale of normal or not. It would be a fine place if we could accept, other than hurtful destructive behaviours, all the people who are ugly, fat, deranged, crippled, maimed, different and mentally afflicted who, in truth, own part of the same world that we do and have every right to be here in their own special way and to be normal.