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Recovering backpacker, Cornwallite at heart, political enthusiast, catalyst, writer, husband, father, community volunteer, unabashedly proud Canadian. Every hyperlink connects to something related directly or thematically to that which is highlighted.

Monday 28 May 2012

Does Community Belief Trump Individual Freedom?





I would suggest it's the Cardinal who needs to tread carefully.

The issue isn't the Province micromanaging the naming of student clubs; Minister Broten is trying to empower students to choose whatever name they feel suits them best.  Within the clubs, there would need to be consensus.  The issue here is the Church and Catholic Boards trying to micromanage the options of students to name clubs as they please.

Youth in Ontario are in a rebellious mood.  They are being told to expect diminished opportunities in the future while their present is being dictated to by well-heeled individuals and institutions.  They're being told to strain preparing for standardized tests, yet watching their parents, weaned on those tests, still stress out at work (if they have work).

Rightly, students are questioning whether the institutions of yore are designed to serve their best interests tomorrow.  When there is doubt, those institutions are finding themselves under tight scrutiny and even become the focus of protests.  As these institutions push back, the movement is gaining support from across society.

Across the board, the phrase of the day is "there's no money."  People are pushing government to spend less but, as the odd scandal or story of waste springs up, the demand is switching to efficiency.  give up the ideologies, policy-makers, start working together across the system and reduce duplication, gaps and overlaps.  More than once it's been asked if we should be funding this many school systems.
As young Ontarians try to claim their stake and all Ontarians start agitating for more streamlined, broadly representative services and an end to silo-based duplication, it's the Catholic Church that needs to consider the implications of their actions.

They can start by asking one simple question.  What would Jesus do?


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