Dam Yankees: The Flow Stops Here
by C. L. Cook
The greatest thing about hosting a public affairs radio program is for me the chance to talk with lots of great Americans. I'm certain, should humanity survive this dangerous time, the names of the guests appearing on Gorilla Radio will be of the household variety, and not as they are now, a collection of the most famous people you've never heard of.

 

I mention this because, for my intense criticism of the Bush administration, (and the Clinton one that preceeded it) some would have me styled as an "anti-Americanist."

 

The Americans I've interviewed over the last nine years comprise a perfect cross-section of American life in the late 20th and early 21st Century: Like America itself; they are a cosmopolitan group, favouring men, english as first language speakers, on average past forty, and "educated." Just some of their names: Jamail, Rajiva, Solomon, Johnson, Alam, Flanders, Kelly, Palast, and Bugliosi represent most corners of the world. All Americans.

I think they, and the scores of other great Americans I've spoken with are admirable not only because of their efforts to address injustice, environmental disaster, war, and the myriad issues arising from the pursuit of the baser instincts as policy by those who rule over us, but especially because they are Americans doing these good deeds from the heart of the beast their nation has become. They have the most on the line when opposing the suicidal course their countrymen  charted for the nation. They are the 'Brave' the famous anthem praises for calling America 'Home,' and I could no more hate them than hate the cradle of modern democracy, and best promise of a life lived with dignity, free of tyranny the post-diluvian world has yet offered: That is, America.

The ideals of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence must be universally applied by America. Today, those ideals are being actively denied to those resident in desperate nations distant and near by those professing to represent democracy and the justice for all ethos it implies. It is also being undermined inside America, where if not always in practice, those higher sentiments of Jefferson and friends were at least enshrined in law.

It is now safe to say:

• "In 2008, the Bush administration currently expressing the power of 'America' is actively dismantling democracy across the planet. Instead of the promise of American political philosophy, as expressed by the 'Founders' of the United States, being universally applied by the nation, it is being universally destroyed."

From Canada, the U.S. elections provide endless fodder for the long winter nights spent shuttered against the storm. What happens in the south has repercussions around the world of course, but in Canada, where the vast majority of our trade is with the U.S., the fate of America is largely Canada's to share.

It's a grim future, providing the leading contenders for the next administration assume power. None are likely to address seriously America's greatest weakness; a moral bankruptcy, revealed through the serial disasters accompanying the two Bush II terms. None of the candidates, save ostracized republican Ron Paul, and debate-barred democrat, Dennis Kucinich has broached the difficult to accept truth of what the moral implications of America's recent actions around the world constitute.

 

None of the others has elucidated just how they thought America was perceived in the public imagination of the broader world, let alone recognize the need for the creation of war reparation agreements between the coalition countries and the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan.     

This systemic moral failing is true of both country's economic and political systems. In Canada, democracy has degenerated in parallel with that of the United States, and not coincidentally that degeneration is occurring too in those nations rounding out the Anglo-American Axis, Britain and Australia.

 

As in America, where the front-runners in the current political campaigns all favour war before peace in Iraq and in Afghanistan, Canada's essentially "two-party" system, favours militarism abroad, and has presided over domestic policies wholly determined to erase the fundamental tenets of the law, as drawn up to protect individual rights against the tyranny of kings.

Many recent changes in Canadian law resemble America legislation. Some are openly recognized as efforts to "harmonize" across borders, while others do so more subtly.

And harmonies are exactly what both parties have sung while in government. Since September 11, 2001, from first the Liberals of former prime minister, Jean Chretien sent Canadian troops into Afghanistan at America's behest; through his Liberal successor, Paul Martin presiding over the redefinition of Canadian foreign policy, (changing the nature of 'The Mission' in Afghanistan, and reinterpreting the future role the nation's military could play "marching forward") to the now empowered Conservatives who, while defending a minority government entering its third year, maintain a 'war-footing,' despite negative opinion polls, and in fact are increasing military spending.

 

This while emulating an American-style assault on the laws of the land, with troubling amendments which unwaiveringly reduce the citizen's personal and/or collective powers in favour of a stated need for increased state security.

Red or Blue, when it comes to war and militarism, both parties are agreed to follow the burgeoning armaments and security industries. Neither in Canada, nor in the United States do those in government recognize morality as an acceptable pre-condition of either foreign or domestic policy calculations. As with their business counterparts, the political class operate on the corporate model that simply put is: Profits first; no prisoners second!

 

This ruthless turn of mind is not missed by those forced out of cities across North America, numbering in their millions now living without a fixed address. And this during the economic "good times."  On the verge of some pretty significant economic uncertainties, the impact of a broadened financial downturn will prove disastrous for millions more. But what is happening to the people unhappy enough to reside within the path of what has become a monumental, continental military stampede, one whose  momentum creates and destroys economies, is of no particular consequence in some gated quarters.  
 

 

There will come a time, if history be true again, where the mighty are humbled. In those times it is the wise who've hedged their bets and kept alongside their calumny a few friends close and dear.

A yellowing page of the November 14, 2007 Vancouver Province (A3) I rescued from a bin on a B.C. Ferry (the corporation removes all reading material between sailing, a cynic would think to sell more virgin bleached paper chases).

 

It says:

 

• 'U.S. dam threatens 'rare' B.C.' The sub-title is even more disturbing: 'Flooding: Wash. state plan would ruin 'third-most-endangered ecosystem in Canada'

The Shankers Bend Dam on its drawing board is an 80 metre high testament to a bygone time when engineers, professional environmental assessment firms, and politicians could pretend hydro electricity an environmentally benign final solution to "clean" energy. It's not likely a pretense the "down winders" of this project, those whose lives will disappear under the reservoir's waters should this project go on, would uphold.

Chloe O'Loughlin, executive director of the B.C. branch of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society says;

• "It's tragedy of the Highest proportions if it proceeds. This is the third-most endangered ecosystem in Canada. Both the federal and provincial governments right now are considering it being given the highest protection in Canada in the form of a national park. It would [a dam] break the Species at Risk Act (SARA), the Park Act...and they haven't consulted the First Nations at all."

O'Loughlin goes on to mention there are thirty-seven known endangered species in the projected sacrifice zone the dam would necessitate. I hope Chloe O'Loughlin's faith in Canadian government aid proves out, but given the character of the two powers in question, I fear her hope may be ill-placed.

 

Instead, I would remind Americans: Visiting a flood upon them is no way to make friends with the neighbours; and, you will be needing all the friends you can find soon."

 

 

[Link to the Province's Andy Iven article on the dam project.]