I am a real fan of American novelist John Steinbeck. In fact I have a 1945 hardcover edition of Cannery Row. Steinbeck was a marvellous story teller and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
His strong characters were ordinary people caught up in tough circumstances. They included desperate migrants escaping the Depression, a mentally challenged man, West Coast Chinese, Hispanics and what today we would call street people.
Steinbeck's heroes didn't swagger, win gun fights, or get the girl; they just lived. They made the most of the hand they were dealt and survived. But they were the heart of Steinbeck's novels. In all his writing, Steinbeck gave his characters dignity and a believable nobility.
Monterey, California is the setting for the novella Cannery Row. In the 1930s, Monterey was the Sardine capital of the world and like all working towns had a wonderfully colourful street life. The story of Cannery Row is a lively, all-too-human snapshot of life on those streets.
Steinbeck's compassion for people, all people, is best summed up in his Noble Prize acceptance speech, where he said, "The writer is delegated to declare and celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit - for gallantry in defeat, for courage compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair these are the bright rally flags of hope and emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature."
In a lighter vein, we could call Steinbeck the eternal optimist.
It is in the context of Steinbeck's celebration of man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit that I'm dragged back to the reality of life today in the United States. These are tough times, not as tough as the 1930s, but - it would appear - equally as mean, if not meaner.
In the run-up to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, a decidedly nasty streak has surfaced in the debate. Two weeks ago, candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination were asked a hypothetical question about a dying young person who had no health insurance. The response from a few members of the politically biased audience was, "Let him die," which was met with some cheers from the crowd.
That was bad enough. But tougher yet, not one of the candidates - all seeking to be the next U.S. president - responded. They stood there mute.
Was this a policy debate on national governance or a run up to the political equivalent of extreme fighting?
It's sad to see a country - one that bills itself as the greatest nation in the world - so accepting of such a disgraceful spectacle of leadership. What I've seen to date in the Republican debate, accompanied by the performance of its members in the Congress, is a race to the bottom. They're seeking electoral acceptance by promising to punish the ordinary and reward the rich. I'm by no means a socialist, but what's wrong with a fair shake for everybody?
This is a country sadly divided along political lines with little regard for doing the right thing. It is instead caught up in a terrible class divide with little understanding or political agreement on how to get itself out of its self-inflicted mess.
In Monterey today the sun is shining.
On Cannery Row, there are a few old buildings from the novel still standing.
The sardine industry died years ago from overfishing. John Steinbeck died in 1968 and somewhere along the way - and in his words, and in his country - so did his belief in man's proven capacity for greatness of heart in spirit.
Maintain the right
No matter what you think of the RCMP - and recently we've seen many disparaging opinions of the force - it is not in our best provincial interests to see the RCMP replaced with provincial police.
Currently, a 20-year contract with the RCMP is being resisted by B.C. Attorney General Shirley Bond as not suitable to the province's needs. Bond is probably right; she's not given to impulse and seldom acts without all the facts at hand.
However, this 20-year, $800 million-a-year contract has enormous political consequences, the most critical being Premier Christy Clark's ability to deal with the Feds in general and Prime
Minister Stephen Harper in particular.
This is not your average dust up, it's a power struggle and one the provincial Liberals cannot lose.
