To the Editor,
Re: Crowds ‘occupy’ downtown plaza, Oct. 18.
Having attended the ‘Occupy Nanaimo’ event as an observer, I spoke with a goodly number of the participants and came away with the following conclusions.
First, Canadians (including Saturday’s disillusioned), are not part of ‘the 99 per cent’, but rather part of the tiniest percentile who have won life’s lottery, fortunate to share one of the world’s finest countries.
No one in Canada need go without food, shelter, medical care or an education unless they choose otherwise.
Second, I noted a common theme, namely that most with whom I spoke were disappointed or unhappy with their lives. One carried a sign saying “This is not the future I was promised” and said he “did not ask to be laid off.”
Which begs the question, who promised you a lifetime job?
Another young woman complained of crushing student debt, yet admitted she was not accepted for the Ontario Teacher’s College because “they thought (she) was too radical”.
Neither mine nor their circumstances are the fault of ‘the rich’. We own the choices we make, whether we select training with good job prospects or buy a home beyond our needs and our income.
Companies may offer us credit, but no one forces us to buy big screen TVs, smart phones or overseas vacations.
What we require is not income redistribution, but the sense of personal responsibility that was the hallmark of generations before us.
Free enterprise has created greater prosperity than at any time in history, but an attitude of entitlement has indebted all of us, squandering our children’s future.
Randy O’Donnell
Nanaimo