Mr. Kluge's March 19 letter criticizing the school children's march over the "Harper Government" directive doesn't make it clear what left wing means.
Is a left wing person someone who thinks an egotistical title is not appropriate to describe 308 elected MPs? I'd be surprised if all diligent voters of any cast, right or left, didn't think Harper's directive was anti-democratic.
And what's wrong with teaching democratic thought in school? Students at university rarely vote even though rising tuition and subject cuts affect many of them gravely.
Why not ingrain democratic thoughts earlier? One of our provincial Liberal Premier contenders even suggested lowering the voting age to 16 (though likely he hoped it would divide the so-called left-wing vote allowing the BC Liberal's a win by default).
Lowering the voting age only makes sense if they're informed especially with regards to spin.
Most kids these days don't realize their miniscule wages would be even lower had not some generations learned in school about the power of the French and American revolutions to exact positive change from the morally bankrupt Conservative thought of previous centuries.
Women's rights in the Middle East arose from education, as has the current democratic drive in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya. Thank this drive for the increasingly younger political education spawned by the Internet.
If history has taught us anything it's that closed educational climates spawn little beneficial change and, dictatorial leanings.
The Hitler Youth Movement taught the status quo, white supremacy. The Indian Act ignored native teachings on discipline, home life and language, and the two ruling parties in Canada taught strict party unity.
All achieved equally disastrous consequences.
In my opinion The Citizen's recent articles have been far more balanced. I always considered them too right wing.
Perhaps Mr. Kluge and I are confused by the rhetoric of columnists, but more likely left and right are just opposite ends of the same thing, the difference being only the spin.
Currently the world's best economies are the Chinese and Scandinavian ones, notorious, left-wing Socialist states. Maybe Lenin was right to predict the collapse of Capitalism.
More likely though it's a collapse of autocratic ally-governed capitalism not democracy.
Alan Martin
Prince George
