Trigger Warning: This piece includes examples of violence and current issues within society. Viewer discretion is advised.
Recently, the mayoral elections happened. We saw a surge in candidates and interest in all areas of the political spectrum. It can be theorized this is due to current resentment of the government, like we saw in the book, Animal Farm, in which there is a clear determined hierarchy, even after the common enemy is defeated. Along with this surge of interest, came a growing amount of people with completely different worldviews and life experiences. For a place like Calgary, this is something we absolutely needed.
Shortly after the election, controversy occurred. Ward 4 councillor, Sean Chu, was brought into the spotlight. The complaint was from over a decade ago, and yet, all other councillors called on Sean Chu to resign from office. Former mayor, Naheed Nenshi, also agreed with this sentiment. And yet, this hasn’t happened yet.
It brings up a few key questions in our society. The first of which being, what is the timeline in which misconduct can be forgiven? Even if this action happened a while ago, all recent actions lead to us thinking that remorse isn’t found. But this extends beyond the confines of our own personal lives. What is the timeline for people to be able to grieve? To forgive and forget? I believe the question is simply convoluted, people moving on isn’t something that happens easily. Forcing ourselves to stay in the past or the future is cruel.
The next question that arises is the accountability we assign civil servants. The massive outrage and twitter protests only occur because he is currently in power over people, and we cannot trust him to exercise that properly. This accountability pretends to be in existence on a minor scale, but when we look at places like the US, who had impeached their president, and he was still able to make decisions for them, we begin to wonder why we can’t hold people doing bad things accountability, why we cannot just fire those who are looking after us, but not capable of doing so. The more and more power people receive, the less accountability they are able to exercise.
The third question is about the existence of wrongdoing. If this is just being exposed, and this councillor has already served a term, what other wrong doings of people are we actively missing in society? I think this question will eventually be our doom. Theoretically, all people are bad, but actively, how bad does a person have to be, for us to reject them as a power overall.
The biggest thing Calgary is missing right now, is people using their power. We all have the power to make a change and to do better, and we are neglecting it, in the name of a future help, we simply don’t seem to be able to get. Stand up for your community, and your own individual rights.
Featured Image: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54477523