:: Friday, December 12, 2003 ::

God, I don't understand people. They just make me want to cry.

I should have been studying for the past hour, but instead I keep reading a message board on the Vancouver Sun about the current BC Ferries strike.

The hate! People are so awful. I really might cry if I read one more post that says something along the lines of

"Do the public a favor, fire these greedy bastards and hire someone else who is willing to work for lesser wage."

or

"How can any of you ferry workers believe that you are worth what you are making now?"

As the daughter of a 20+ year ferry worker, it's like seeing 100 "your mom" jokes at once, only they actually mean them.

I think the thing that makes me the most sad about it is the number of posts that say something like, "I'd kill to make that much money, so fuck them, make them work for what I'm making." What the hell is with the attitude "If I'm suffering, everyone should suffer with me"? If you think you have it so bad, why would you wish it on others? And if you'd like to make that much money, then imagine you did, and think about how you'd feel if it was hacked in half.

But for every ten or twenty awful posts, there was one good one. These people give me hope:

"The facts about this dispute seem to be left out of most of the discussions. The media and many in the public think that the union members are after increases and just want to inconvenience the public to get them. If the truth be known then perhaps there would be a little more patience with the workers. The Corporation, under the guidance of Gravy Davy, has submitted three pages of demands that will significantly strip the contract. To say this is setting the workers back thirty years is an understatement. Most, also don't realize that the main job of the catering staff and all other employees on a B.C. Ferry is to protect and save from harm the travellers on board. By Transport Canada regulations these people must be on board when the Ferry sails. I realize that safety is not the top priority of David Hahn but I thought the travelling public would want to be safe while sailing with the Fleet."

"Welcome to McBC, where your wages and working conditions, like Wal Mart prices, are going down. But not the politicians and executives of course, we have to give them gobs of cash. But we need more cheap labour so let's put the children to work. Let's sell everything we can get our hands on for nowhere near market value. Let's gut services to the poor, the disabled, the sick, the elderly and the menatally ill. We can find a way to tax anything we want. No more free parking. Yay! We are now more in debt than ever, surgical waiting lists are up, unemployment is up, it's almost impossible to get a post secondary education, there's more people living on the streets than ever. Corporate interests are fleeing the province despite the fact that we completely bent over to them. Yup, we've got ourselves a good government here. Unions bad, NDP bad, but this government is good. Right. WAC Bennett is rolling in his grave."

As for the rest of you... Merry fucking Christmas, you hateful, hypocritical, selfish bastards. Get informed. You think unions are such a horrible inconvenience? Great, lets just get rid of them. And then soon we'll be able to get that much closer to the political system of fucking Communist Russia or Nazi Germany. Take history class people. Get rid of the Kulaks and the rest of the peasants will be in the Gulag in no time.

It's funny because you probably think I'm exaggerating.


~song~ Neutral Milk Hotel - King of Carrot Flowers

:: Katy 12:05 a.m. [+] :: ::