Stretched too far . . . 

How far can people be stretched until they break?  This is the question that has haunted me this past week, reflecting not only on the teacher’s strike, but in conversation after conversation with people who have committed their lives to the service of others.

 

I have been convinced for a while that we have two different economies happening at the same time that, in many ways, mirror our concepts of power with and power over. One is a creative economy. People bring their gifts and their collaboration to create something of value that didn’t exist before. In parallel, we have the economy of exploitation, where people extract as much as they can from people and our environment so that they can get what they want. We use the creative economy to justify the exploitive economy, but they are two different economic systems. When I look around, it seems like the economy of exploitation and the culture of extraction are becoming dominant in all areas of our culture these days. I wonder how long it will take before people break? 

 

I have spoken with teachers who have experienced years of erosion in our public education system while facing increasing demands to teach more kids, and more kids with more complex needs. I have talked with Doctors who are struggling to keep wards and programs open because doctors and other health care professionals are leaving, retiring or refusing to carry on, while our hospitals struggle to hire people willing to take on what have become impossible roles. I have also sat with people of incredible gifts, who are being used simply as cheap labour because their experience comes from another country. In non-profits, faith communities and in public service, leaders are asked to take on the problems of the world and their communities, and find themselves not only working to the bone, but under attack as cheap targets of people’s anger. 

 

So, as our city council begins to talk about budget cuts, “Do more with less!” and on the other side, I hear the calls for a general strike in response to the overriding of people’s human rights to keep a culture of exploitation going, I wonder how far we are from breaking? How far are we from exploding? How far are we from getting organized so that we can lead our communities to an economy and culture of creativity and relational power? 

 

What can you do?

There is still the need to keep writing to our MLA’s. You can write an email though our action button: https://actionbutton.nationbuilder.com/share/SPK-QEdGRkE=

 

For those who are interested in how other groups are responding, some of the initiatives that our members have suggested we pay attention to include:

 

An initiative to recall Minister Nicolaides has started. The need volunteers from outside the riding of Calgary Bow and canvassers from the riding - if you are interested, go to: https://recallnicolaides.ca

 

An initiative to shift funding from private education to public education has been launched: https://abfundspublicschools.ca