Jul 12
19
The Bethune Debacle: $2.5 Million to Honour a Communist: Rod Taylor
Even political enemies should show respect for the dead. That respect, however, needn’t result in an inappropriate exaltation of one who damaged the world as much as Norman Bethune did. Many of us have made mistakes in our lives; we have said and done things we later wish we could unsay or undo. I don’t know whether Norman Bethune ever gained enough understanding of the world to regret helping Mao Tse-Tung conquer China and unleash the slaughter of 60 million Chinese. But I regret that a Canadian should have been a supporter of that slaughter.
As Ezra Levant pointed out so powerfully in his commentary on this same topic, the Conservative government of Mr. Stephen Harper could not find 2 cents to put towards a memorial to the nearly-100 million victims of communist regimes from Russia to China to Cuba and beyond. And yet, in an economic climate where the federal government feels compelled to borrow $58 million each day (Hey! That’s like $1 per day for each of the victims of Mao’s totalitarian dictatorship!) the same government can proudly cough up $2.5 million to “remember” Norman Bethune.
I was contemplating the twisted logic and perverse priorities that could justify such an expenditure using borrowed money (or more properly, money “stolen” from our grandchildren, for they are the ones who will have to try to pay it back) when it occurred to me that the deaths of Chinese civilians is still going on: the killing of the unborn and those who die from forced abortions while trying to protect their little ones are tragedies the world is trying hard to ignore but courageous human rights activists are risking their lives to keep the West informed.
No doubt the “heroes” of tomorrow will be the doctors, bureaucrats and spin doctors who use money and influence to support the population control agenda practiced openly in China and more covertly in other developing countries. Women are being coerced and whole societies are being subverted. First, money is offered and other perks to convince women that being childless is easier, more fulfilling and safer. Then, when society has lost its compass, coercive force can be used, as in Hitler’s day, Mao’s and Stalin’s.
A society searching for heroes need not settle for those whose usefulness to the communists outweighs their nobler accomplishments and achievements. Pick Linda Gibbons, the grandmother who has now spent 9 years in jail for nobly defending the unborn. Pick Kari Simpson, family advocate in BC’s Lower Mainland, who has devoted her life to protecting children and parents from the unwanted heavy hand of intrusive social bureaucrats. Pick Artur Pawlowski, Calgary street preacher, who feeds the city’s hungry and homeless, brings light and hope to the desperate and despondent and seeks to raise the bar for cities like Calgary by fearlessly proclaiming the name of Jesus in the face of persecution. Pick Alex Schadenberg, tireless crusader for the protection of the elderly against state-sponsored euthanasia. There are many more heroes, living and dead, who are worthy of our unmeasured admiration. If you must spend taxpayers’ money on a monument to a man, pick someone we would want our children to emulate.
By the way, none of those people I mentioned would want to see Canada spending $2.5 million on a building in their honour. All of them would say, “Use that money to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to defend the vulnerable.” A government that cannot wisely judge the deeds of the past is neither fit to make honourable and wise decisions for the future.