End The Protests Now

I attended the funeral of a good friend of mine on Oct 15. He was part of what Tom Brokaw described as “The Greatest Generation in History.” At age 15 Ernie Bagstad left small town Alberta for the West Coast to work the fishing trawlers. At 17 he was heading to Europe as a private in the Seaforth Highlanders. Ernie would be wounded at Ortona, Italy only to return to battle a few months later when he was captured and made a prisoner of war.

At war’s end he returned to Alberta, and despite his struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ultimately become a plumber. He and his wife Lydia would raise four children all of whom became contributing members of Canadian Society.

Ernie would spend his retirement at the Military Museums volunteering to lead school and Remembrance Day Programs. Ernie really was the very best example of the “Greatest Generation.”

So what is the point of all this?  I thought about Ernie as I drove by the “Occupy the Something Though We Are Not Sure What” protests in downtown Calgary.

A couple of hundred people with nothing better (read job, family etc) to do on a Saturday afternoon came out to protest something (even they can’t put a finger on it). They want no capitalism, no taxes (except on 1% of some population), debt forgiveness, high paying

jobs, a better environment etc. etc. If there 200 people out there, there were at least as many incoherent demands.

Most of us missed the gathering. We were doing something productive like going to jobs, playing with our kids or delivering eulogies.

On a day when my friend Ernie, who never asked for anything but an opportunity to work hard and succeed, was buried a bunch of whiners, many living on the government dole (paid for by Ernie and others taking responsibility for their lives), thought taking over a city street and camping out in Olympic Square was “free speech.”

It is not. Free speech is just that speech: verbally, in writing or even video. It is not taking over public space paid for by all citizens for common use. It is not marching so that taxpayers have to pay for policing, EMS and clean up. And it certainly is not living in a tent hamlet in the center of downtown Calgary.

Some say let it burn itself out. Winter is coming - that will test their convictions.

That is an insult to Ernie and everyone else who sees the opportunities Canada has to offer. We must enforce the law and end the fake protest now.