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Theresa's Tidbits: The more things change…
Theresa Seraphim
for Spotlight
About a month ago, a coworker was cleaning out the shelves in the Lakeside Leader’s coffee room and came across some magazines from the early 2000’s, most of which were the Alberta edition of Report newsmagazine.
Being the inveterate reader that I am, I went through them, picked some issues with topics that seemed especially interesting, and starting poring over them.
All I can say, after doing that, is it’s amazing how things that were issues then are still in the news, to various degrees.
For example, the Feb.5, 2001 edition of Report had articles dealing with cougar maulings, the inadequacy of health care, Alberta appearing to be immune from a recession, the case for government-owned electricity, and a Christian group trying to save a Nigerian woman from a punishment of 180 lashes for committing fornication.
Guess what? There were two cougar attacks in B.C. within the past few months; healthcare is a big issue, particularly here in Alberta; this province was as affected as others by recession; and in some countries, women are still being punished for sex-related offences.
Or take the April 1, 2002 issue of Report, the cover story of which is entitled, “North American Supersize: The fattest population in the world – what to do?”
Just a few weeks ago, in mid-January, a study was released which said obesity is not only on the rise on this continent, but has also surpassed smoking as a major contributor to an early death.
It seems, then, that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
We often say, “We need to do something about such-and-such”, and yet several months or years later, someone could do a “followup piece” for a magazine, and find the same situation.
Of course, a big part of this is that there are so many issues, one cannot deal with them all at once. It takes time to turn the tide – and it takes willpower. It seems that the decision to do something doesn’t come quickly or easily to us humans; rather, we have to come to the point where we want to do it.
However, here’s another point: perhaps all it takes is one person to start the ball rolling. That person can influence one other person, who influences another person, and so on, and before you know it, the objective is accomplished.
That would definitely make for a different, very hopeful kind of “followup” story, wouldn’t it?
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