More Than Meh

     I was recently called out by someone I respect. This is a person of some celebrity who has a large group of keen listeners, readers, and online followers. He writes a column for a city publication and, without naming me directly, took exception to something I said in the column and via social media. This a person I respect, understand, though we do not agree on too many things the same outside of a love for beer and football teams.
     The dispute stemmed from his sharing on Facebook the comments of someone whose ideologies rarely align with my own. The commentator was being intentionally provocative about the Quebec student protests (from his comfortable spot in Alberta, where a bash against Quebec is always a safe bet). He then went on to belittle those who replied to his comments.
     I commented on the thread, and my esteemed friend, who had reposted the thread in the first place, asked me to justify my feelings that it is an Albertan cliche to attack protesters, be they Quebec students, members of the Occupy Movement, striking CP employees or, god help us, teachers or nurses. I got into one of those "I respect you but don't know you" Facebook debates with a person who also has a completely different political, ideological and possibly ethical leaning than myself. Those aren't always much use.
     My friend, the one person of the three I actually know, commented in his column that I was glomming him into the masses, those who belittle all forms of protest, those who feel that their own opinions of why a protest is happening justify telling protesters to shut up from the safety of their own couch. Perhaps I did, though that was not my intent.
     The single stopping point, that is, the point where we do not agree, is on the judgement of the student protesters in Quebec. I don't know how it's being reported in the rest of the country, but in Alberta what we're hearing on most media is how low tuition has been in Quebec, and the opining has leaned towards calling the protesters spoiled babies who are making the Charest government into villains for doing their jobs. The Charest government are doing that well enough on their own, introducing a despicable anti-assembly law in the same vein as the feds' back-to-work legislation.
     When I was in university, if I would have seen a drastic hike in my tuition, you can be damn sure I would've taken to the streets as well. I would not have looked to my East or my West and said, "Shucks, I'm doing better than those guys." I would have gone after a government that has traditionally done a terrible job of funding post-secondary education and called them out for their lack of creativity, for saddling the cost on the people least-equipped to bear the load. This is the sort of thing that can turn the wary away from an education, and the idea frightens me.
     My education has created an arrogance in me that I must be cautious of. However, since long before I had finished my degrees, in the days where Canada Student Loans annually found some giant roadblock to throw in front of me (such as counting my father's farm machinery as liquid assets), I have been afraid of people accepting that they won't go to university because of costs, and instead taking the fast track to easy money. "I'll take my Grade 12, work in the oil patch, exploit, consume, and die having accomplished . . . what?"
     My umbrage stemmed from the comments regarding these students that echoed so many I have heard regarding protest of late.
     "Accept. Relent."
     "It could be worse."
     Is this what we've resorted to, saying that life's good enough, don't complain? Don't seek to make it better? Don't point out injustice when you see it? And to pointing fault in the deeds of anyone who does not feel they should do the same?
     I welcome protest in all forms, because protest is dialogue. Do I agree with religious crackpots bashing gay marriage on the front steps of the White House? No. But I allow that they should have the right to express themselves so that I may weigh their arguments and decide where I stand.
     Complacency has been the Western Canadian operating word for a decade or more. Apathy and lethargy are the greatest threats to freedom of speech.