(This column was published in the print edition of the North Shore News on Mar 5, 2003)
Warrior went beyond the call of duty
By Leo Knight
THE polarization of politics here on the wet coast was symbolized by the Olympic plebiscite held last month in the City of Vancouver which had the Yes side favoured by a 64 to 36 per cent margin.
On virtually every issue there are approximately 60 per cent of the population on one side and may I say, inevitably the correct side, while about 30 per cent continually come out on the other side, the left side.
The remaining 10 per cent will waver and vote one way or another depending on the issue. There are other dynamics of course, but for the most part, this formula stays true time and again.
Often, the issue de jour need not be a left and right political split, but inevitably it becomes one. Equally, political issues, which would logically be a left and right debate often, become a union and non-union split. The spending of health-care dollars or the privatization of liquor stores comes to mind.
Sunday's rally on Robson drew thousands of pro-Olympic revellers while the No side was epitomized by the Goth-punk-tree huggers who tried to crash the party with their megaphones demanding more welfare and free housing; the politics of entitlement driving their every thought.
It is actually this stark contrast that too often identifies why the left are inevitably on the wrong side of every issue. The application of ideology without common sense is their hallmark.
Which leads me to the story I want to tell you of a cleaner named Tommy who used to work at the RCMP detachment in North Vancouver. Tommy is Japanese. He doesn't speak English all that well, but he took pride in his job. To him, the job wasn't menial, it was important to keep things just so. And, if he accomplished that, then the police officers would be in the
right frame of mind to do their important work.
Tommy would take great care doing the little things like watering the plants. He was a whiz at flower arranging which brightened up an office often made dismal by the nature of the work the police do. One police officer kept a shrivelled, sorry looking African violet on her desk. She asked Tommy to do her a favour and keep an eye on it because it was sickly.
Tommy apparently misunderstood the request.
When she returned to work after the weekend, there was a new, flourishing, healthy African violet on her desk. She tried to scold Tommy for spending his money to replace the old, sickly plant, but Tommy just bowed to her and said it was his pleasure to keep her happy for her important work.
It was this caring about his job and feeling that his work was needed, important and relevant, that got Tommy into some hot water though. Someone in the union, which represents Tommy and his colleagues, believed Tommy was trying too hard. And, (gasp) they suspected he might actually do things on his own time to make sure everything was perfect for the crime
fighters. There's word these mediocrity merchants even began inspecting Tommy's mop on Saturdays to see if it was wet.
Tommy has been transferred to North Vancouver City Hall now, after many years at the detachment where he was universally liked and respected. A punishment, apparently, for having the temerity to want to do a good job. I suspect Tommy doesn't want to be at city hall. He wants to be around the police officers to help them do their important work. But evidently
his union thinks that doing a little extra and taking pride in your job sets a bad precedent.
Why, if they let Tommy get away with that then everyone might be expected to do a good job and that's just the thin edge of the wedge isn't it?
Worse yet, the ironic part of this has much to do with the fact Tommy is Japanese. His culture is one of responsibility and duty. He is the way he is because of the centuries of tradition in Bushido - the way of the warrior - that espouses "loyalty, self-sacrifice, justice, sense of shame, refined manners, purity, modesty, frugality, martial spirit, honour and
affection," according to Japanese teaching.
While Bushido was developed as the code of the Samurai somewhere between the 12th and 13th century, in 1871 the Samurai class was abolished by statute and Bushido became the general ideal throughout the country.
But, the union types, who preach multi-culturalism and inclusion and all those warm, fuzzy cause celebres of the political left until they are blue in the face, can't seem to respect Tommy for who and what he is.
In the same manner as the Jaggi Singh's and Garth Mullins' of the world sermonize to the masses on free speech as long as one agrees with their pointy-headed point of view, the union has punished a Japanese immigrant for not rejecting his culture and conforming to their oppressive thinking.
Their hypocrisy is only limited by the mental gymnastics required to explain their actions.
It was the British writer Kingsley Amis, (also attributed to William Casey in his obituary in 1987, although it is possible Amis was quoting former French Prime Minister Astride Briand) who scoffed at a reporter when asked what he thought of his son, then a university student, being a communist. "Anyone," he said, "who isn't something of a socialist at 20 hasn't a heart. And anyone, who at 40 is still a socialist, hasn't a head."
Small comfort I suppose for Tommy, that the union he is forced to belong to is populated with people who have never grown-up.
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