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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

The Sixties debate; Doing what’s fair; and raining on the Olympic parade…..

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

I’ve been exchanging e-mail with a friend from the old days recently. He was a member of the best local band to come out of our area and actually lived in a type of commune where all band members lived together so they could concentrate on nothing but making music. Normal topic when you come in contact with an old friend from the Sixties is whether we actually accomplished anything by growing our hair long, wearing jeans to school and generally challenging the Establishment at every turn. I’m convinced that the hippie generation did indeed revolutionize the world in many profound ways. From big issues like the liberation of women and civil rights, to the small ones like being able to wear your hair long or being able to wear jeans to school. I’m convinced we set in motion the huge wave of change that has landed us where we are today. To me, the really big question is whether we started positive change in motion or whether we just caused a lot of chaos in a social system that was working pretty well. I think a goodly number of people today feel the changes have been a little too much. Before the Sixties, we lived in a very conservative society and perhaps things have swung a little too far to the liberal side of things. Today, a large number of the rules or social conventions that were in place when we were young are gone or severely damaged. Indeed, today we seem to live in a world where there are few rules. Issues like the environment and global poverty and violence seem worse today than ever. But there seems to be no turning back. So, I guess the debate over the Sixties will continue….there obviously is no real answer to whether they were a period of positive change or not. I’ll tell you something, though. For better or worse, they made me who I am. And I have a lot of fond memories of the time and the people. Sometimes, I wish I could go back….it’s just the way I feel.

I’m watching the TV news these days and seeing plenty of coverage of the happenings in Haiti. It is a horrific scene for sure. Watched one story about the number of Haitian children currently being adopted by families in Canada and around the world. And I was wondering who chooses which children are adopted and which aren’t? Because it seems to me that it could often mean the difference between life and death. And shouldn’t all the children of Haiti have a fair chance at survival? At first, I thought it was wonderful that some children were being saved, plucked from the disaster, and carried off to safety. But, then, I got to thinking about the children who are left behind and wondering how fair the system of adoption really is. Shouldn’t we perhaps be pumping our resources into saving all the children, or is it just a foregone conclusion that we can’t save them all and there are some who are expendable? I’m really torn on this one. I want the children saved – that’s for sure. But, for me, it’s an all or nothing proposition, or we’re not doing it right….And saving the children from the ravages of the earthquake is only one part of the equation. We need to make life on the island of Haiti somehow sustainable over the long haul or we haven’t done anything to help the children…..and you read that here first!

I am not a supporter of the Olympic Games. I feel it’s an overblown, ‘way-too-expensive waste of time and money. I feel that many of the athletes are in it for a variety of the wrong reasons. I don’t understand why we have to build all these really expensive sports venues when most of the cities chosen already have arenas and tracks and ski hills and the like. I don’t understand why the true spirit of the Games – competing for the pure joy of competing – has been allowed to fade to the point where it just doesn’t matter anymore. It’s just gotten ‘way too big and out of touch with the ideals it’s supposed to represent. It’s like the Olympic Torch Run across Canada. I thought they’d take one torch and hand it from person to person while it passed across the country. Instead, apparently there were a whole bunch of torches and the torch jumped all over the place as it crossed Canada – it was clearly not being carried on foot and passed from hand-to-hand. I would also liked to have seen the torch bearers chosen randomly from the communities they lived in. Every time I saw part of the Torch Run on the news, it was being carried by people like the chairman and CEO of the main event sponsor, or famous Canadians. It sort of looked to me like you needed connections to be part of the Run. Anyway, I don’t want to rain on the Olympic parade too much, but I can remember a time when the Olympians were supposed to be true amateurs and you didn’t have to spend billions of dollars to be a host city. Oh well, I guess times have changed and I better get with the program….

Out of time for another week and charging along getting another paper on-line. Thanks for reading along. Take care and remember…..”Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.