Despite our differences on COVID, let’s call a Christmas truce this year | Globe & Mail - Preston Manning:
Preston Manning 2014, Wikimedia Commons
December 23, 2021 - "It was around Christmas Day in 1914, five months after the start of the First World War, when a most unusual thing happened.... A temporary peace descended on the Western Front – one organized by rank-and-file soldiers, not by their officers who feared trickery by the enemy and not by generals and politicians far away from the front both physically and psychologically.
"Flash forward now to Christmas, 2021, with the world again at war – not a military war, but a war with a virus that has pitted the proponents of safety at all costs against those suffering the loss of their rights, freedoms, jobs and incomes as a result of the safety measures imposed. Communities, companies, charities, schools, churches, sports clubs and families have become increasingly divided – often bitterly – over whether to wear masks and social distance, whether to congregate or travel, whether to accept economic lockdowns and whether to be vaccinated and if so with what. In addition, the bitterness of these conflicts is intensified by the spread of a social virus – the so-called 'cancel culture'....
"The political and media arena in Canada has become so polarized that discussion of almost any measure intended to alleviate that condition can easily become polarized as well. Let me therefore be more clear that what I mean by 'the proponents of safety at all costs' are not the adherents to those safety measures – not those who willingly consent to such measures including vaccination mandates – but the well-intended governmental decision makers and health officials responsible for devising and implementing those safety measures. And what I mean by 'those suffering the loss of their rights, freedoms, jobs and incomes as a result of the safety measures adopted' – are not just those who may resist some of these measures but anyone and everyone affected by them....
"How about striking a genuine truce – just over the Christmas season – as those First World War soldiers did so many years ago? Especially at the community and family levels, how about just deciding to stop arguing ... and to seek a renewal and strengthening of personal relationships rather than cancelling them?
"If such a truce is to be struck, it is unlikely to be initiated by senior public officials or politicians who are preoccupied with waging the COVID-19 war at the macro level. Nor is it likely that such a truce will be initiated by the mass media, for whom conflict and war are much more newsworthy than co-operation and peace. No, if such a Christmas truce is to be struck it will be initiated by rank-and-file Canadians at the family and community levels – by ordinary folk who simply decide to emerge from the isolation of whatever COVID-19 trench they find themselves in and extend the hand of friendship to those with whom their relationships have been strained or broken by the crisis.
"A 2021 Christmas truce would be short and temporary. But, if enough Canadians participate in it, maybe the desire to return to the trenches will be lessened to the point where Armistice Day will follow sooner rather than later."
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