Wishing and praying  for good decisions

    From the most ordinary of people, to the highest decision makers in the world, I am wishing and praying for good decisions. God made us all with a free will and, for the most part, the ability to decide what to do and not to do. Everything I have to say today may well apply to myself. As I have said many times, I try not to preach from a righteous pulpit, but write from a desk of observing what would be considered good decisions.
    As ordinary citizens, we in Canada have tremendous freedom to make good decisions. Most people, but not all people, have enough money to live better than they do, as many of our financial decisions result in buying things where we could nicely thrive without buying them.
    I won’t give you my preferred shopping list, you make your own, but when we are short of money, there are almost always better decisions that can and should be made.
    When it comes to life choices, we also have options and the same logic applies. Lots of things we are doing are not giving us the results that benefit us or others. Maybe we need to stop doing the less than helpful things.
    For cities, towns, and municipal organizations, decisions are a bit more difficult as moving in a certain direction needs strong support from staff and a majority of votes on a council. Agreements must be reached. 
    Here’s some examples of better decisions. Fervently pursuing recycling programs that actually accomplish little or nothing is a waste of money and human resources. Having raw sewage ending up in waterways is inexcusable and must stop. Not having clean drinking water in all our communities, no matter how remote, is a travesty. In some cases, the facilities have not been built, in other cases the facilities have been badly maintained or even abused. Regardless, the situation requires better decisions by some people at some level, be it local or at a higher level.
    At the provincial and national level, we have situations where people have chronically made bad decisions, and by that I mean perpetual criminals or abusers. There is no way on earth we should have “likely to be dangerous or re-offend” notices being necessary. People who habitually re-offend or abuse other people belong in an institution. In my mind, that includes murderers, rapists, drug dealers and drug users who refuse to stop. All of these people are a threat to others and themselves and to keep on playing cops and robbers, a high level game of hide and seek, catch and release amounts to one of the worst decisions we make as a society.
    I am firmly against capital punishment, but I am in favour of long term institutionalization.
    On the world scene, I have  a few suggestions. To Russia’s President Putin, grow up and go home. You have done more than a few lifetimes of damage. Quit already! Your country is already too big to successfully manage and you are nearing your life’s end, you don’t have much time to amend your ways. Russia is too good a country to be wrecked upon the rocks of one man’s ego. 
    To President Trump, please wake up and figure out that while you have a lot of support for some of your policies, your manners are poor, your ego is huge and your mouth sometimes makes no sense. You too are in your latter years and if you want a strong legacy, you need to smarten up.
    To Prime Minister Carney, you are well educated, well trained and I think a smart guy. However, you need to start doing some things and not just muse about doing things. Like many countries, Canada is living way beyond its capacity to pay the bills and, quite frankly, Canadians are noting that a lot of your promises may well be benefitting your company more than the average Canadian.
    To Premier Wab Kinew and Oppostion Leader Obby Khan, please learn to shut up. For God’s sake, we don’t care about your cheap shots against each other or against the other parties. All we want you to do is govern and while you are both capable of good decisions, we could surely use a bit more evidence.
    May God bless everyone with wisdom, tempered by reality and clear thinking.
    Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the Banner & Press staff.