Our power just went out, so I am sitting here, unable to read because I had not yet downloaded a book onto my Kindle (which takes the internet which is also out), nor can I search the computer, or even read news or commentary because of the lack of internet. We have become slaves to technology. We have plenty of actual books in our house and Bibles, but reading them in the physical form rather than on our electronic equipment necessitates reading glasses which I use as a last resort.
So, before resorting to the last resort, hauling out my glasses, and reading my physical Bible (which I actually like better than my on-line versions), I decided to share some thoughts on the world, specifically North America. It used to be I focused on the U.S., but what has been happening in Ottawa the last few days has been chilling, and I am NOT referring to the weather! As most of you probably know by now, thousands of truckers and others converged on the Canadian capital in protest of the vaccine mandates being handed down by their government and the draconian method in which the entire COVID situation was being handled. In Quebec, for example, the unvaxxed were not allowed to enter large box grocery stores where food is cheaper. Instead, they had to go to small stores whose prices had to be higher because the stores couldn’t buy in bulk. The unvaxxed were finding themselves having to put things back on the shelves that they needed simply because they couldn’t afford them.
The handling of COVID in Canada under Trudeau has been similar to the handling of COVID under Biden: clueless. And so, the people, the real people of Canada decided to make their voices heard. Immediately Trudeau called them “a small fringe group with unacceptable ideas.” But that small fringe group turned into thousands of truckers and others, cheered on by other fed up citizens as they drove through the country. Canadian flags were everywhere, both on the trucks and along the roads. And what were these “unacceptable ideas?” Just one. Freedom. Canada, like the United States is a free country and has long been a free country. And like the U.S. they are a hodge-podge of ethnic groups. So, this freedom convoy contained whites, blacks, Sikhs, Chinese, and Indians. They came alone or with their wives and kids. They set up places for the kids to play and tents in a nearby park. They were given food and fuel by the citizens of Ottawa, and in turn they gave food and clothing to the homeless. The government tried to accuse them of violence, but reporters, including U.S. Fox’s news crew, saw no violence at all.
The police made threats, but then did nothing. Trudeau said he would sic the army on them, but the army informed him policing duties were not part of their job description and so they would NOT be forcing any truckers out of Ottawa. Michigan complained (Governor Whitmer would, wouldn’t she!) because they had blocked the Ambassador bridge between the U.S. and Canada, preventing car parts from getting to Michigan factories. Some of the factories closed down or closed down lines while they considered airlifting the parts in. Are we really so consumed with our own jobs and comfort that we cannot see that their push for freedom is our push for freedom as well? If we are, then God help us! I admit we, ourselves, were waiting for a new car and figured ours would be stalled by the delayed parts, but, hey, we’ve already been waiting since September. What’s another couple of weeks while they get the alternative delivery figured out! Of course, the police moved in today, arrested a couple of dozen truckers, and cleared the bridge, so commerce can flow again after all.
But progress is being made. The opposition conservative party has been loud in their condemnation of Trudeau, who claimed to be sick and hid at home through most of this. Then Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, and Quebec announced they would drop all or most COVID restrictions. Manitoba will eliminate capacity limits for businesses tomorrow and intends to remove proof of vaccination on March 1 and all other restrictions on March 15.
But now the despotic ruler has begun to rattle his chains. He has invoked the Emergencies Act. The Trudeau administration is going to freeze crowdfunding institutions, cryptocurrency transactions, corporate, and personal bank accounts that support the Canadian truckers. Vehicle insurance of anyone involved in the Freedom Convoy Protest will also be cancelled.
And this is a free country? Makes a person want to drive to Canada and hand over some cash to the truck drivers and dare the Canadian Mounties to arrest an American citizen!
“The Emergencies Act, passed in 1988, demands a high legal bar to be invoked. It may only be used in an ‘urgent and critical situation’ that ‘seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians.’ Lawful protest” one writer comments, “do not qualify. And we are talking ordinary citizens here, not terrorists. Yet the government, the democratic government of a free nation is going to take away their vehicle insurance and freeze their bank accounts because they are participating in a peaceful and legal protests and I mean really peaceful, not the looting, burning, murdering “peaceful” riots that our media dubbed “mostly peaceful” in the summer of 2021!
And Trudeau and his ilk and Gretchen Whitmer who was happy to see the truckers arrested on the Ambassador Bridge were all cheering on Antifa and BLM last year while they wreaked havoc on Democrat-run American cities (mostly in minority areas) and took over police stations and entire blocks of cities for weeks on end. That was okay. That was peaceful protest (never mind the murder in CHAZ or the thousands of policemen or the passing motorists who were injured by the “peaceful protestors.)
The world has settled itself into a new social order of politicians/celebrities/sports stars/and the wealthy who are now the self-titled elite. The rest of us, the teachers, the policemen, the doctors, the lawyers, the plumbers, the secretaries, the firemen, the nurses, the factory workers, the truck drivers. . . all the rest of us are the serfs. We have no rights in their eyes. We have no freedom unless they choose to give it to us. In fact, they want to make it impossible for us to work our way out of serfdom. They want us totally dependent upon them for everything, just as in the feudal days of old where serfs owed work, some of their crops and animals to the lord and he owed them protection.
But the truckers in Canada are not willing to lose their freedom. The parents in Virginia and in many other school districts in the U.S. are not willing to be denied the right to have a say in their children’s education. Truck convoys are mobilizing across Europe, encouraged by the courage of the Canadians. And here in the United States, word is that a convoy will start in California, picking up vehicles as it goes, arriving in Washington, D.C. on March 1 in time for the State of the Union Address. (Attendance at the speech will be greatly limited, and probably few Republicans will attend other than Cheney and Kinzinger because of Biden’s COVID restrictions, but everyone knows the state of the union has utterly collapsed in the last year, so no one really needs to hear his garbled speech anyway.)
Biden’s approval ratings are sinking into the 30% range, and when asked, 56% of Americans couldn’t name one thing that they thought Biden had done well since taking office. (Not even pardoning the turkeys?) The elite are in trouble, and like any cornered animal, they are going to become more vicious. But they would do well to remember the French Revolution. There are far more serfs than lords! And in the U.S., at least, the serfs have guns!